Wind Directions

[Bottesford]

Thinking about the vile easterly type weather some of us have at the moment got me thinking about wind directions and what they bring thus the best/worst at different times of year.

For your area/preferences what are the various wind directions usually like and what do you prefer?

For me (and yes this isn't clear cut so is just a general view on how it is at my location):

Northerly

Outside summer are generally clear and cold with little precipitation unless it has sufficient strength/instability. Superb air quality.

Best in: mid autumn through to mid spring (one of my favourite wind directions in this period due to clear skies and good air quality)

Worst in: Summer (low temperatures and not as clear as at other times of year)

North westerly or straight westerly

Cool with heavy sometimes wintry showers but clear spells with good visibility between them.

Best in: Early to late spring April especially (proper showers direction!)

Worst in: Summer (cool and excessively cloudy)

South westerly

Mild with copious frontal rain & sharp showers with drier periods between. Moderate visibility in clear periods with some sunshine at times.

Best in: October-December (Best time of year for rain & wind. Keeps heating off for longer whilst getting the rain we need).

Worst in: May-August (ruins summer with excess cloud & rain coupled with suppressed temperatures).

Southerly (my favourite wind direction overall)

Warm or hot with very little cloud cover and precipitation. Exception being when some Atlantic air gets in and sets off storms. Often humid with poor visibility.

Best in: Mid spring to early autumn, summer especially. (Best direction for hot weather & sunshine coupled with chance of storms from time to time).

Worst in: Winter (less useful at this time of year although I would have them any time although not all winter of course).

South easterly

If a short sea track then hot in summer, cold in winter with very little precipitation. Longer sea track brings extensive cloud cover especially the further north you go. Poor air quality in summer with pollution off western Europe. Prone to being cloud ridden in spring or early summer which can often burn off but may take some hours.

Best in: Any time but mid to late summer. (Best direction for dry heat with very little chance of precipitation).

Worst in: Mid autumn (Europe is neither warm nor cold so just brings pollution & weather like this week across).

North easterly or straight easterly (my least favourite wind direction overall ).

Cool in summer, freezing in winter. Very poor air quality from pollution in central Europe (Ely more so than NEly). Unless a deep cold feed then are extremely cloudy leading to constant low cloud, drizzle and uniform suppressed temperatures day & night. In a deep cold feed brings heavy snow periods, if not a deep feed (of which most aren't) then raw heat sapping conditions with slate grey skies prevail.

Best in: Winter - if a deep feed then this is a fantastic wind direction for clear extremely cold weather with snow. But anything less than a true deep feed results in extremely poor conditions.

Worst in: Spring and summer (they often bring excessive cloud and suppressed temperatures) and at all other times except that 10% times they are sufficiently cold.

[Snowy Easterlies]

take a guess lol

[Aaron]

Northerly or North Easterly in winter, hate easterlies, they are best for the South East but not so good elsewhere IMO.

[Snowy Easterlies]

northerlies are useless here but at least we get some hard frosts

[I remember Atlantic 252]

horriblest wind direction for me has to be NW, brings dreadful rain every time

SW, not too bad, generally dry, although a pain in winter due to no cold or snow

East, generally good, can do well for snow from north sea, be a pain from april to june with the north sea mist

NE, generally wettish outside winter, in winter, I am generally too far north and west for snow, (eg the bbc video by mr data in winter thread)

northerly, showery in summer, bone dry and cloudless in winter

southerly, varied weather really, normally hot in summer, can be very cold or exceptionally mild in winter

SE, similar to southerly, can be colder in winter

westerlies, dreadful if an Arctic source, eg 20th Dec 2009, snow goes to stockport etc, generally showery in summer

[bobbydog]

any way the wind blows.... doesn't really matter - to me.... to meee......

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Aaron, Easterlies bad? thought they would be very snowy for leeds? must get more than here, and I generally do well, like 30th Nov - 02 Dec 2010

18 Dec 2010, and 22 Dec 2010, I had decent snow off easterlies

[Isolated Frost]

Northerly

Usually quite cool or cold in winter, generally clear and breezy, perfect weather really. Cold fronts can produce wintry shrs at times.

Arctic source North-Easterly/Easterly

Usually cold, clear at times with hefty showers in winter. My favourite type of weather by far. Sunshine and snow showers, sometimes sun all day (December 3rd, -12c low on top of 42cm of snow), and sometimes heavy convective snow (November 26, November 29 etc).

Polar source North-Easterly/Easterly/South-Easterly

Long fetch, very stable, often damp, drizzly with low cloud and mist. Horrendous but eerily autumnal at times like this.

Southerly/South-Westerly/South-Easterly

Usually warm and pleasant, can take some clouds with it if there is a prominent sea track in there.

Westerly

Usually windy, cloudy and sunny at the same time, not much precipitation unless it's a major front tbf.

North-Westerly

Normally, very sunny, quite cold and very breezy. The odd shower might pass through.

The chart above however symbolises why I live on this planet.

[Zenarcher]

Northerly and North Westerly

Excellent in the winter usually gives very low wind chills, the lowest I've recorded since 2007 is -15c. At any other time of year it's not all that great.

North Easterly

We rarely get this direction of wind and when we do it usually brings settled weather.

Easterly

Extremely rare direction but when it occurs it brings settled calm and sunny weather.

South easterly

Not sheltered from this direction at all the wind comes right off the sea luckily it rarely does. With this direction it usually brings heavy rain and wind.

Southerly

Brings in warmer air and is excellent during the summer. At any other time it's okay.

South westerly

One of my favorites when there's a bad storm I'm sheltered from this direction and most storms give that direction. On the weather side of things it usually brings in wet and windy weather off the Atlantic.

Westerly

Brings the weather straight in off the Atlantic which is usually miserable.

Edited October 24, 2012 by weathermaster