DARDC

...... Decoding coastal wind reports

A date/time group appears in the first column. The first two digits represent the day of the month. The next four digits represent a time, in Greenwich Mean Time (or Z time). Z time is seven hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and eight hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (PST). Data in the next six columns is wind speed and direction for each of the six coastal wind observation sites. Wind direction is a three-digit number and represents the direction the wind is blowing from (in degrees). The pair of two digit numbers after wind direction are current sustained wind speed, and peak wind during the past hour. Wind speed is reported in knots. A "00" for peak wind speed means data are missing.
The first row of numbers (set off with dashes) represent data from 24 hours ago. The second row of data is the most recently collected data, with the previous hour after that etc. A partial list of wind data appears below, with an interpretation following it.


TIME      TRINIDAD    PT BONITA   GG BRIDGE   PIGEON PT   ANGEL IS    DAVIS PT
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131505Z   210 00 04   100 01 07   250 07 10   330 08 00   260 06 00   270 13 16
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141505Z   060 00 03   100 12 18   160 05 08   120 28 00   150 10 00   110 12 16
141405Z   070 01 03   090 08 13   160 11 12   120 25 00   150 11 00   110 10 13

The most recent report is from the 14th day of the month at 1505Z (8:05 am PST). At that time, wind at Trinidad was nearly calm with a peak wind during the past hour of 3 knots. Wind direction is from 060 degrees (east-northeast). Pt. Bonita's wind is from 100 degrees at 12 knots with a peak wind speed of 18 knots...etc. 24 hours ago, the wind at the Golden Gate bridge was from 250 degrees (west-southwest) at 7 knots with a peak wind of 10 knots.

Storm Brings Rain and Snow to the Southwest U.S. this weekend; Heavy Snow and Rain for Alaska

DARDC