![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3HMVPIUxvKopb9fBSuigL2VNoazpRJYrQDGS6sxsO8wcUJRwvDNrMH7rtLMbx8gg23PO5KvoMqIqVWxF1b3NiVasnXJKvDPSxdKe8bfcOeg2g4l2pcReTxkAJSKq17VCQmr-fkwv5RPze/s400/fog.JPG) |
A foggy morning at 63rd Street beach. The breakwall 100 feet to the right is invisible. (Photo by Lyn Stone.) |
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This has been a season of extreme weather. We've had torrential downpours, heat waves, gale-force winds and thick fog--sometimes all in the course of 24 hours.
Paddlers need to pay attention to the weather, but looking at the all-purpose local forecast is rarely enough. We start there, but then we turn to a combination of regional radar, marine forecast, nearby weather reporting stations, and good old-fashioned observation to get a more sophisticated sense of what conditions we'll experience on the water.
Some of these sources are easy to identify. In our area, they include:
We've also acquired a small library of books that help us understand the weather and decode the evidence around us.
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Five of our favorite weather books. |
These sources are only as useful as the context you put them in, however. We compare what they suggest to what actually happens, and over time we're developing a pretty good ability to know what's coming and get off the water in time if it's something bad.
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Ominous clouds. |
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Another afternoon when we got off the water before the storm hit--this time with 70-plus-knot-winds. |
2 comments:
Semi-related: The WSJ recently gave a good review to the new book "The Wave Watcher's Companion," by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Pinny also wrote "The Cloudspotter's Guide."
Thanks for mentioning it!
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