Weather faxes

 

Hi kids!

I talked before about sailors needing to know what the weather is.  The big, benevolent federal government kindly provides mariners and others access to great resources for weather prediction.  One of these resources is 'weather faxes'.  These are actual faxes that you can receive on your boat over special radios to show you pictures of the weather patterns for the day.  You can also get them online from the internet.  I look at several every day to figure out what the weather will be when we sail.

Here is a typical fax.  It shows an outline of the United States' coast, the presence of high and low pressure systems (look for an H.  That's a high.  Look for an L.  That's a low.)  The heavy lines show different air pressures and the little arrows show which direction the wind is blowing and how strong it is.  The wind blows from the tail of the arrow where the little 'barbs' are to the other end.  The number of 'barbs' tell you how strong the wind is.  Three barbs is 30 mph.  Two it 20 mph.  Two and a short one are 25 mph, and so on. 

This fax is a picture of the storm that just passed over you.  It indicates that your wind will be coming from the northwest.  In the center of the swirl of arrows it says 'hurcn force' which means 'hurricane force' or winds over 50 mph.  Woof!  A hurricane is blowing in the north Atlantic!  Guess I better stay out of there!

Here's an internet site with lots more of these weather charts:

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/marshlatest.shtml

Have fun experimenting with weather charts!  If you check these every day and get used to using them, you'll always be prepared. If not, you'll be just another six year old.  Your choice, kid.