Winter Solstice
#16
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2007
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 75
Re: Winter Solstice
First you get the easterly off the sea - cool breeze, high cloud - then the wind swings round the the nor-west - hot wind (fohn wind heated by crossing the plains, in summer the nor-wester drives people and animals batty) then the southerly storm that follows. Sunday was nor-wester and warm, today is southerly and polar.
Sometimes it takes a couple of days for the cycle to swing round, sometimes it takes a week. Often the predicted southerly storm is a fizzler, and you look to the south and wonder if that is all you are going to get.
Incidentally the best wind for sailing is the dying southerly, not gusty but nice and steady. This is the time of the big frost and blue skies, the best bit of winter.