Where’s the Wind Gone?

2012-06-18 23:34:58.000 – Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist

H.O.T.W.W.W.?

This shift week has certainly been one of the calmest I can recall in my four years on the summit.

A high pressure center drifted eastward late last week, and set up shop over New England on Thursday. Ever since, winds have not been able to muster much strength.

Here are some statistics from Thursday through today (Monday). The first figure for each day is the daily average wind speed, and the second figure (after the slash) is the daily peak wind gust. Be aware that Monday’s statistics are incomplete, as there are still two hours left in the day as I compose these thoughts:

June 14 (Thursday): 9.3 mph / 27 mph
June 15 (Friday): 6.8 mph / 18 mph
June 16 (Saturday): 9.6 mph / 21 mph
June 17 (Sunday): 6.9 mph / 20 mph
June 18 (Monday, as of 10PM EST): 8.9 mph / 22 mph

That makes five straight days (barring a jolt in wind speeds in the next two hours, which looks unlikely) of winds averaging below the 10 mph mark, and 5 straight days with a peak wind gust below 30 mph. Even for summertime, this is unusual.

How unusual, you ask?

Being curious and having access to tons of historical data, I took the time to search out the last time MWO observers recorded a five-day stretch of winds averaging less than 10 mph.

One has to go all the way back to a period from July 28 – August 1, 2001 to find such an occurrence!

The stats from those five days were as follows:

July 28: 7.5 mph / 14 mph
July 29: 5.5 mph / 14 mph
July 30: 6.0 mph / 13 mph
July 31: 7.4 mph / 18 mph
August 1: 7.8 mph / 16 mph

That makes this quite a unique event for us on the rockpile! Perhaps it’s not as thrilling as a long stretch of high winds, but it is still an exciting and rare occurrence nonetheless!

 

Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist