Barometers, what's the deal?

[wannacat]

We also watch the barometer in the morning and then periodically during the day if the pressure is dropping or below normal.
One big thing everyone is missing is how good it is in helping bake biscuits, scones and bread especially! If the pressure is falling then forget about baking as your going to have problems with things rising. Not a good baking day! Better to go back to the bunk and see what rises there?

[donradcliffe]

On a recent delivery from Hawaii back to the mainland, I downloaded a couple of barometer apps on my S21 android phone so I could compare our pressure with the Predictwind prediction. Once out of internet range, the apps refused to work. Do the android phones have pressure sensors, and is there a reliable offshore app?

[s/v Jedi]

If there’s one thing to remember about a barometer then let that be that it is useless when you don’t log readings.

That said, get a barograph instead. Much of what has been posted about are in fact barographs. You don’t need the ink and paper versions anymore. I had an electronic one much like the one posted earlier but that stopped working after 10 years or so and now have the sensor on the NMEA2000 network and a multi-function display writing the graph. Both my Maretron and B&G displays can do that. I prefer a 24 or 48 hour graph.

[Jackoski]

if you are on a long passage and out of range of weather forecasts then why not keep an hourly log, noting position, time, air pressure etc not only it will give you something to do but it may give you some warning of a change in weather. I now use my iphone as a barometer and its as accurate as a barometer and there are apps that can keep the data like a baragrapgh

[Carl-T705]

Originally Posted by Manateeman

Well you probably will not believe it, once upon a time ocean voyages were accomplished without any electronics !
A water sailing">Blue water sailing vessel had a set. Accurate time and a barometer.
Recording barometers, a dry and a wet bulb thermometers did provide a lot of information about local conditions. Nobody but ships had radio.
I sailed for 15 or 20 years before I saw a life raft on a yacht.
Over reliance on instrumentation, can result in the loss of acquiring simple weather skills. Your question is a bit frightening. A sail boat is a wind powered machine and it’s very helpful to know the basic forces which generate wind and the instruments to measure them.
Happy trails to you.
The manatee crew.

This is an unbelievable tale .. surely you jest?? I suppose next you will want us to believe sailors didn't have large blaring stereos to entertain all the boaters in an anchorage and didn't have to get peer approval for every boating secession that had to be made. Gosh, sailors must have been a hearty group of rugged individuals. What a story!!!

[JordanH]

To the original OP (and anyone else interested in knowing more about this topic). I highly recommend Reed's Maritime Meteorlogy. It's an easy to understand text on weather meant for the professional mariner.


The highly complex topic of understanding weather is broken down so that you understand WHY the weather is doing what it's doing and then you can predict what the weather will do. It will help you understand what high and low pressure means, but also the implication of it. What is low pressure? Why would a change in pressure bring a change in the weather? How does the pressure change cause wind and weather to move, and why do you need to know both to know where the bad weather is going to be? etc etc. Amazing book for understanding weather on land too. :-) It will, indirectly, answer your questions about reading and recording barometric pressure.



https://www.amazon.ca/Reeds-Maritime...9469602&sr=8-2

[Coltrek]

I use one of these, https://yachtdevicesus.com/collectio...ometer-ydbc-05 The B&G will produce a graph which is very handy.

[arcticmonkey]

I loved my marine barometre... never wrong when predicting changes
a bygone era, I quess, when we didn't have all the dodads available... my only regret was the clock next to it had a battery.

[Tudorsailor]

Another alternative is to use a barometer chip with an Arduino to make "Nanobaro" Have a look at this thread https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?thr....484828/page-7



TS

[MJH]

Originally Posted by Hillbillybuddha

I know the basics. Barometric pressure drops, a storms is on the way. Which seems like good information to have. But I've never seen a barometer in the cockpit. They're usually on a bulkhead or hidden away in a nav station. So maybe they're not that important anymore but were at one time?

Also, if you see a drop, does that mean you have 10 minutes till a storm or 10 hours. Is it a general, a storms a'comin thing, or is a useful tool to reef soon? And if so, why wouldn't you have one in the cockpit?

Basically, what's the deal with barometers?

The long and short on this topic is that you need a good weather forecast before going sailing. This is easy when sailing coastal but more difficult offshore and on passages when you are out of normal VHF, WIFI, AM/FM, and CELL range. Following the barometer readings will give you good reliable data on what is happening around you westher-wise. But having a barometer on-board is of no use if you don't read it hourly.

You don't have to spend a fortune to track barometer recordings. A number of older handheld Garmin GPSs have that function on them at reasonable cost.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[Cynara]

Pressure is the same inside or outside the boat

[Bill_Giles]

There are several things one needs to be aware of. Wind speed*, wind direction*, cloud cover*, cloud height and shape, temperature, visibility, wave height and direction, water colour and temperature and barometer reading*. If one of these changes then all or most of them will change. I record those with * hourly but others record all. On al ocean passage what else have you to do? Water colour and temperature is important when negotiating the Gulf Stream, pressure is important when in areas of tropical storms. As weather is a key ingredient to safe sailing then understanding it and monitoring it is important.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by waterman46

We in CA don't ever see much use for barometer. It doesn't vary much at all. Boring. Here you can predict a lot more by watching the high cloud formation days ahead of a weather front, and the rare but wonderful warm and humid south wind - that is, when we used to get those a few years ago.

Back in the 80's there was a fast little but strong low pressure cell that arrived in the middle of the DoubleHanded Farallones race. This only happens in early spring. We didn't have a barometer on board, but we all knew it was coming due to the gale warnings on VHF. Wind and seas were violent. I guess this is the sort of localized weather that a barometer is very useful to predict.

The gale warnings were not announced on VHF until after the race started. It got pretty sporty out there (anemometer pegged at 60), but there were no strong winds inside the SF bay. When I got back to the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a coast guard cutter doing donuts out there that wasn't letting anyone out of the bay.

[OS2Dude]

Our wind instrument also has a pressure sensor that displays on our NMEA2K devices. The B&G Vulcan 7FS at our nav station also can display a graph. One thing it does not have is a temperature sensor. One day I will spend the big bucks to get a NMEA temp senor or two.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Recently updated my weather station, that we used constantly on all ocean passages, with a NASA Barograph.

https://www.nasamarine.com/product/meteoman/

Very pleased with results so far.

Cool, can it read Raymarine Wind messages on the NMEA?