Sail in Stunning Northumberland

KWSC - The Weather (and tide link too!)

We have several popular weather links here for you to choose from and a wind speed conversion table below. (Also try ringing the club house on 01434 240052 and see if anyone is there!)

A quick view upated every hours (the image may take a few seconds to generate)!

Latest Weather Forecast from www.metcheck.com - Click on the image above for a full forecast

Wind Guru at Kielder - ever popular and thought to be a good forecast	The Wind Map for the UK - a very visual weather map
Accuweather at Lanehead (also known as onlineweather.com)	Online weather from Bellingham - a very good source of information
BBC 5 day forecast based on Hexham	Tidal predictions for those travelling elsewhere
Met Office Inshore Waters Forecast and Strong Winds Warning	US Air Forces in Europe - 21st Operational Weather Squadron (Basically - lots of detail, very comprehensive as you might expect)

Wind speed conversions

The Beaufort Scale was originally developed in 1805 by Sir Francis Beaufort as a system for estimating wind strengths without the use of instruments. It is currently still in use for this same purpose as well as to tie together various components of weather (wind strength, sea state, observable effects) into a unified picture. The table below provides the Beaufort Scale and conversions to popular units. Following this there is a descriptive chart of the Beaufort Scale.

Beaufort Force	Description	Speed
		knots	km/h	mph
0	Calm	Less than 1	Less than 1	Less than 1
1	Very Light	1 - 3	1 - 5	1 - 3
2	Light breeze	4 -6	6 - 11	4 -7
3	Gentle breeze	7 - 10	12 - 19	8 - 12
4	Moderate breeze	11 - 16	20 - 29	13 - 18
5	Fresh breeze	17 - 21	30 - 39	19 - 24
6	Strong breeze	22 - 27	40 - 50	25 - 31
7	Near gale	28 - 33	51 - 61	32 - 38
8	Gale	34 - 40	62 - 74	39 - 46
9	Strong gale	41 - 47	75 - 87	47 - 54
10	Storm	48 - 55	88 - 101	55 - 63
11	Violent storm	56 - 63	102 - 117	64 - 73
12	Hurricane	>64	>119	>74

Beaufort Scale Description

Beaufort Force	Description	Land Conditions	Sea State
0	Calm	Smoke rises vertically	Sea like a mirror
1	Very Light	Direction of wind shown by smoke drift only	Ripples with appearance of scales, no foam crests
2	Light breeze	Wind felt on face, leaves rustle, vanes moved by wind	Wavelets, small but pronounced. Crests with glassy appearance, but do not break.
3	Gentle breeze	Leaves and small twigs in constant motion, wind extends light flag	Large wavelets, crests begin to break. Glassy looking foam, occasional white horses.
4	Moderate breeze	Raises dust, loose paper, small branches move	Small waves becoming longer, frequent white horses.
5	Fresh breeze	Small trees in leaf begin to sway	Moderate waves of pronounced long form. Many white horses, some spray.
6	Strong breeze	Large branches in motion, umbrellas used with difficulty	Some large waves, extensive white foam crests, some spray.
7	Near gale	Whole trees in motion, inconvenience felt walking against the wind	Sea heaped up, white foam from breaking waves blowing in streaks with the wind.
8	Gale	Breaks twigs off trees, impedes progress	Moderately high and long waves. Crests break into spin drift, blowing foam in well marked streaks.
9	Strong gale	Slight structural damage occurs	High waves, dense foam streaks in wind, wave crests topple, tumble and roll over. Spray reduces visibility.
10	Storm	Trees uprooted, considerable damage occurs	Very high waves with long overhanging crests. Dense blowing foam, sea surface appears white. Heavy tumbling of sea, shock-like, poor visibility.
11	Violent storm	Widespread damage	Exceptionally high waves, sometimes concealing small and medium sized ships. Sea completely covered with long white patches of foam. Edges of wave crests blown into froth. Poor visibility.
12	Hurricane	Extreme destruction	Air filled with foam and spray, sea white with driving spray, visibility.

Huge Gusts at Kielder

It may not be as windy as it has been before but this is the first time we have recorded Hurricance Force Gusts on the weather staton at the club. On Sunday 23d March 2008 in the wintery conditions we experienced some sudden squalls and strong gusts. On more than one occasion the weather station recorded more than 64 knots (Hurricane force) and on one occassion recorded "HH.HH". We are not sure what that indicated except possibly hurricane force gusts exceeding the station's 5 second sampling rate. A (slightly blurred) picture was taken showing the weather station recording 77+knots of wind at the clubhouse. Good job no one was sailing at the time, the previous race having been abandoned!

Kielder

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