There has to be a reasonable explanation for this. When I wake up and look out the window, the water’s flat. When I look out right now, wavy and windy - why does it pick up in the afternoon? I’ve noticed the same thing on lakes (the best swimming or waterskiing is in the morning!) so it can’t be a phenomenon of tides.
I’ve been thinking about this for the past three days and trying to come up with an explanation. There are a bunch of smart people around here - enlighten me, please.
tc
edit - if it makes any difference, I’m on a little cove… Sand Beach is always wavy, AM or PM!
Isn’t wind mostly a function of temperature gradients? As the air heats up during the day you therefore get more temperature gradients and thus more wind? Especially around bodies of water which are typically cooler than the surrounding air temperature.
There’s a reason all crew teams practice in the morning…and it’s not just to make practice a living hell for those who went out drinking the night before
Why does the wind pick up toward the middle of the day?
I also remember learning in fourth grade that wind does not cause waves. Oh wait- wikipedia says that ocean surface waves “result from wind or geological effects.” Fine. My question remains about why it’s windier midday.
I am happily awaiting a big storm so we get some really good waves.
Specifically, land mass warming faster than the ocean, then rising warm air over land being displaced by in-rushing cool and moist ocean air creating afternoon winds.
Opposite of that would be high pressure gradients over land pushing back on the ocean temperature gradient and flattening the surface some.
As the air heats up during the day you therefore get more temperature gradients and thus more wind? Especially around bodies of water which are typically cooler than the surrounding air temperature
Oooh, that makes sense.
“Typically cooler?!” LOL, I have been in that water twice today for ‘ice baths’ and saying it’s typically cooler than the air temp would be an understatement I guess starfish must not get hypothermia.
Wind is natures way of equalizing pressure. As inland land masses heat up, they create lower pressure relative to coastal areas. Cool coastal areas have more dense air of higher pressure. Wind is just these pressure gradients trying to equalize. You can see in in SF Bay or the Columbia River Gorge. It can be totally predicted by simply looking at pressure gradients between regions (i.e., San Francisco vs Sacto). When the gradient reaches certain level, boom the westerlies come up…just like clockwork.
I did an open water race around this pier Saturday morning. On shore, it looked flat out there, but it was actually quite rough/choppy. Just a light onshore breeze, but I guess enough to whip it up a bit.
This has been covered many times thru the years, so you might try a search. But the basic reason is that all the action of the waves during the day makes the water lose its fizz, so it goes flat by morning ;~) :~)
Yep, HB. Every June, the city holds a swim around the pier. This year was the 57th annual and the long-standing record was finally broken - 8:22. It’s a great non-wetsuit, mass start swim that costs only $15 and they have trophies! It’s really fun to watch the young, “pool rat” race. Those kids are fast, but have little ocean sense - they’re all over the place.
TC,
They are trying to trick you with science. The truth is, just like when there is nobody in the pool and the water is perfectly flat, early in the morning, there is usually nobody out on the water. Then the stupid water skiiers, swimmers, kids doing cannon balls show up and drive and splash around and make all the waves. This gets the fish all riled up, and they start swimming around under the water, which makes even more waves.
I spend a good amount of my time explaining stuff like this to my 2 year old, so I’m kind of an authority.
In those tiny parts of the world that are not near oceans (“fly over states”, in current parlance), the winds don’t really follow a circadian pattern. In CO, where it can be really windy (but it’s a “dry wind”), the winds, other than from t-storms, have a lot to do with high pressure over the mtns and low pressure over the plains. The high pressure builds/drops based on larger flows of air, not daily patterns. But, whatever their source, the winds do make the lakes choppy. Well, we don’t have lakes, just ponds.
They are trying to trick you with science. The truth is, just like when there is nobody in the pool and the water is perfectly flat, early in the morning, there is usually nobody out on the water. Then the stupid water skiiers, swimmers, kids doing cannon balls show up and drive and splash around and make all the waves. This gets the fish all riled up, and they start swimming around under the water, which makes even more waves.
