From the sublime to the ridiculous

After two weekends of too much wind, this weekend expect too little, forecasts Libby Greenhalgh

No howling gale in sight this weekend. Instead there will be not a lot of wind! This time sailors maybe well be finding a postponement or cancellation due to light and variable winds.

General Situation

A high pressure system centred over the North Atlantic will ridge over the UK providing the south with very slack flow. A warm front will have cleared through Friday night providing the weekend with cloudy conditions. The wind will struggle to reach 5 to 8 knots and the direction will be variable swinging between the NE and the W throughout the weekend.



Saturday

There is every chance that there will be no wind on Saturday with cloud clearing late morning early afternoon. As the daytime temperatures rise convection will begin. The best chance of sailing will be on very weak sea breeze developing from 11am.

The windspeed could push 6 knots from the southwest but this will decrease and return to calm by 1900 hrs. Sunday is the slightly better day.



Sunday

The gradient flow is slightly more organised providing a more consistent surface wind of about 5 knots, possibly pushing up to 10 knots in places, from the WSW but this will ease out across the afternoon becoming variable. A weak cold front feature will clip the Solent in the late afternoon behind which the cloud will lift. Sunday will otherwise remain cloudy which will mean the gradient flow will struggle to get a weak thermal enhancement.

Other websites to check out...
Latest Radar: www.metoffice.com/weather/europe/uk/radar/
Synoptic Charts: www.westwind.ch/?page=ukmb
Satellite Imagery: www.eumetsat.de/

For some actual wind and direction:
Isle of Wight - www.islandweather.co.uk/
SouthamptonWater- www.apbg09.dsl.pipex.com/met/mainframe.htm