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Old 08-14-2008, 09:29 AM
Skyway Scott
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I feel like this time of year tends to have more sporadic winds than most.
The kicker is that the "base wind" tends to be light (big kite stuff) and if the wind does change, it's usually fast and furious (up to 30 plus).
That's a really bad combo.

We often get storm cells associated with the light seabreezes. These can gust past 30, even 40 sometimes. That just happened to me (I hopped off about 2 minutes prior) on Tuesday. It went from about 15 straight to 30 plus for several minutes. The only visual giveaway was the sand storm up the beach. The clouds weren't that obvious to me.

The late afternoon East winds at the Skyway are fairly notorious for going from 11 knots to 20 plus, very commonly 30, in literally a heartbeat, as the land cools off. That possible scenario will start in about 6 weeks, I think. So, yeah... stuff can change fast.

This time of year, especially starting in about 6 weeks, is the time I am always most concerned for rider's safety. We usually have a lot of riders wanting to ride after being cooped up for awhile. Thing is, (especially at the Skyway) it can often go from 11/13 to 25 plus in certain scenarios, and did quite a bit last season with the afternoon easterlies.
We had several people hurt, with one rider (unfortunately) making the news due to a very serious injury.

If you do ride, I would recommend trying to be around some vet riders who know how to anticipate weather. Hopefully they know what to look for and give you warnings on scene. Also, they can catch your kite, etc.
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