Glidemet

I’m interested in compiling a version of the ridge day tool for hang gliders (and a third for paragliders — can’t really leave you out  ).

I personally think the ridge day tool is the best thing since sliced bread but I’m not sure it’s used that widely.

However I have a friend who hang glides and apparently this site is quite well known amongst them, so I’d like to extend the ridge tool to cover them too.

So if you have a favourite ridge and would like a tool that can scan seven days of forecasts and tell you when that ridge may be working, what I need from you is:

• Site name
• The lat/long in decimal form (e.g. “52.3675,-1.2433”), to four decimal places
• The wind speed range (in knots) and the wind direction range the ridge works in (e.g. “300-350”)

I have a suspicion that the wind speeds will be fairly fixed — something like 8-15 knots for paragliders and 10-20 for hang gliders? Do educate me though!

Either leave a comment with the info below or use the “e-mail me” link on the left.

You heard it here last…

• Nympsfield have moved to a proper blog (and Wordpress at that, good choice boys). Link on left updated.
• It’s the World Air Gliding Games GP (or something), supposedly at grandprixchile.org, though the site is not working for me at time of posting. I took the link from the FAI’s page too… Note that apparently this isn’t the Sailplane GP, as that page makes no mention of the Chile event. Whatever.
• (I’ve also removed the Bicester link, as they’re not updating very often. At all.)

(No, as far as I know, Nympsfield haven’t been given a GP event!)

But not forgotten, either.

(This point was due a friend pointing out that it wasn’t Saturday anymore, and hadn’t been for some time. I think it was actually a Wednesday at that point.)

It’s Saturday morning, it’s a good soaring day, so it would be rude not to do a forecast.

Really not a bad day today although best towards the east. It’s a dry, unstable, but well-capped airmass, so with plenty of strong sun on the ground there will be some strong climbs around.

Flying winds will be 15-20kt, lighter in the west, but here the dewpoint will be higher with the westerly wind coming straight off the sea. So in the west a fair amount of cloud and well-marked wave, and the chance of some light showers popping off high ground.

Going east, cloud bases rise through 4,500-5,000ft in central areas up to over 5,000ft in southern East Anglia where dewpoints in this quite dry air will be down around 7. Very little chance of showers over here under a good subsidence cap to the boundary layer.

Likely with-wind streeting which will help with legs piushing into that wind.

There’s some cirrus floating around but that should generally scoot around the area with the west being most at risk. Even so, it’ll be thin and wispy so won’t hold things back too much,

Just a few words on Sunday: a good day. Light W wind in the south of 10-15kt at 2,000ft; the further north you are, the stronger, reaching 30kt+ in northern England. Sorry. Back in the south though, low and a bit damp in the west, up to 3,000ft, but rising to nigh on 5,000ft in East Anglia, probably blueing out in places around Essex/Suffolk. Best bit roughly Hampshire-Norfolk.

Hopefully I’ll be able to do more forecasts over the next fortnight.

Quick forecast for tomorrow (Friday): Good, but not great. Post-cold front with a ridge, but a isobar squeeze will give flying winds of 15-20kt from the west. Widespread good cumulus to around 4,500-5,000ft; best along the M4 corridor. Eastern areas cloudy and showery from that cold front, edging northeast out of East Anglia by mid-afternoon, but lingering on eastern coasts to the north.

Sea breeze convergence along much of the south coast and north Devon should be reachable, though watch for Bristol Channel air coming into Somerset later in the day.

By the way, thank you to everyone who’s voted in the polls or sent me comments.