Howling today in the PNW

[senormechanico]

In my neighborhood on Whidbey, same thing.
Several small outboard boats went out fishing while I checked my dock lines.

[exMaggieDrum]

Two sail boats went on to the breakwater outside of Cap Sante Marina yesterday here in Anacortes. It could have been much worse as there have been an unusual number of boats anchored out there all summer. And one boat in the marina had shreds left for what used to be a furled jib. I didn't hear of any injuries but it was heartbreaking to see the boats bobbing up against the rocks while the wind was still howling. Lots of trees down in town and the downtown was dark for most of the day.

On the news awhile ago they were talking of all the weather stations with 70+ mph (not knots) of wind.

And the little story on inches of mercury versus bars - are you kidding me? One is metric and one is old English/American. They give the exact same info in a direct proportionate calculation. Much easier than converting centigrade to fahrenheit degrees. Now that is a hardship. I, for one, would love for the US to adopt metric but barometric pressure is not one of the reasons. But I am sure you were kidding.

[canyonbat]

We left the San Juans about a week and a half ago after spending all summer there and in the Gulf Islands on our Seaward 25. Last night, when we went to bed at around 10:00 it was still over 100 degrees here in Lake Havasu after topping out around 116 in the afternoon. We were really questioning our decision to leave when we did. Today, with the boat safely in the garage, having read this, I am not nearly as unhappy!

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

...And the little story on inches of mercury versus bars - are you kidding me? One is metric and one is old English/American. They give the exact same info in a direct proportionate calculation. Much easier than converting centigrade to fahrenheit degrees. Now that is a hardship. I, for one, would love for the US to adopt metric but barometric pressure is not one of the reasons. But I am sure you were kidding.

Why would I be kidding? And why would anyone need to convert to inches of mercury? It is an arbitrary and odd measure. Barometric pressure read in millibars from a universal standard of 1 bar, or one atmosphere gives instant, extremely fine grained and intuitive grasp on the actual state of the atmosphere. The imperial system is in this case frankly pointless. The only need to convert between the two is afforded by the odd retention of it as a measure, and it seems to me there is no good reason for this to be the case.

The only countries that retain this measure are the US, Myanmar, and Liberia.

[newhaul]

What does converting from standard to metric have to do with us having hurricane force winds yesterday causing loss of life and property.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by newhaul

What does converting from standard to metric have to do with us having hurricane force winds yesterday causing loss of life and property.

Apologies for the thread creep.

[alansmith]

Love the web site Windyty.com

Saw that big wind yesterday off of PNW. Does anyone know the formula for wind speed and how that equals force? For example an earthquake of Richter scale 5.0 is 100 times more powerful than a Richter scale of 4.0.
So, when wind speed is 20knots and gusts to 60 knots I bet it is not just a factor of 3x stronger. Saw it once awhile ago but please refresh me. Tx

[AlbergSteve]

I've been working in Bamberton on Saanich Inlet and went to check on our floating jobsite yesterday. Between Cowichan Bay and Mackenzie Bight there was one "pleasure" boat out on the water, and between multiple round-ups and near broaches, she was showing a LOT of bottom paint on her way back to Brentwood Bay!

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

Apologies for the thread creep.

No problem usually I don't snap like that but in a former life I was a first responder.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Love the web site Windyty.com

Saw that big wind yesterday off of PNW. Does anyone know the formula for wind speed and how that equals force? For example an earthquake of Richter scale 5.0 is 100 times more powerful than a Richter scale of 4.0.
So, when wind speed is 20knots and gusts to 60 knots I bet it is not just a factor of 3x stronger. Saw it once awhile ago but please refresh me. Tx

I will dig into my old trunk to see what else I can find for now here's the Beaufort scale
https://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/beaufort.html
Here's a printable PDF of the scale
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...LU6wp82dAARhQA

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Does anyone know the formula for wind speed and how that equals force?

I believe that force increases as the square of windspeed. So a 60kt wind would have 9x the force of a 20kt wind.

[Tessellate]

Was anyone crazy enough to go out sailing yesterday? And have pictures / video to show what it was like? I saw one video on Facebook (posted to the Duck Dodge group) of a boat sailing in Oak Bay (inside of Whidbey) with just a scrap of jib out (or maybe closer to 80%, hard to tell in a small grainy video).

Would've been a good time to practice heavy weather sailing. Although I imagine getting back into the marina would've been the scariest part.

[dkroar]

We are secured into transient mooring in Bar Harbor Ketchikan, waiting this out:
CLARENCE STRAIT
...STORM WARNING TODAY...
.REST OF TODAY...SE WIND 40 KT INCREASING TO 50 KT IN THE EARLY
AFTERNOON. GUSTS TO 65 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 11 FT. SHOWERS
AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.
.TONIGHT...S WIND 30 KT DIMINISHING LATE. SEAS 8 FT. SHOWERS.

The harbor seems full-up, however we have seen small Bayliners out fishing...no thanks.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Love the web site Windyty.com

Saw that big wind yesterday off of PNW. Does anyone know the formula for wind speed and how that equals force? For example an earthquake of Richter scale 5.0 is 100 times more powerful than a Richter scale of 4.0.
So, when wind speed is 20knots and gusts to 60 knots I bet it is not just a factor of 3x stronger. Saw it once awhile ago but please refresh me. Tx

Alan, the force exerted by the wind goes up as the square of the velocity. And I believe that you will find that the Richter scale is logarithmic, so that in your example there is only ten times the energy in moving from R 4.0 to R 5.0.

Jim

[s/v Beth]

I was there during the sinking of that one. She was on the beach and holed, the "salvagers" decided that they would try and get her to a dock. Pulled here off the beach and then sank. She was a wooden sloop, but had a fair amount of valuable stuff on board. No one on board when she broke her rode.
Passed Smith Island friday about 4 pm. Not a ripple on the water. Safe in Port Angeles right now and looking to Cape Flattery. Maybe later this week. I even talked to Paul in Friday Harbor on Wednesday.
Talk about missing things by a hairs breath....