With today's technology, wind sensors are way out dated. Our sensors especially. iKite's current wind observations map is no more than an ad scheme surrounding misinformation, imo.
Vid cams would be the way to go around here if we could get them up in a couple places. I have been saying that for 6 years and had an offer of 250 bucks up if anyone was interested in matching some funds. It never happened. I just rely on the BN9 cam now for info about the beach and call people.
I too Richard, drove out to the beach (PaG) SO many times one season about 5 years ago due to false high readings from the PaG sensor. I was getting pissed seeing 15-18 on iKite and finding less than 8 when I got there. I did it about 20 times. Old(er) timers like Chris Moore remember that happening. Save gas was one of iKite's slogans at the time.. yeah right. I still get mad thinking of it. :mrgreen:
Luckily that sensor got ripped off the Hurricane restaurant during a storm (or sumtin like that). Then, BayNews9 installed a beach cam shortly thereafter, so that was sweet
. The cam is decent (but not great). Good ones would be zoomed in a little more on the water in order to see white caps clearly. Oddly, the cam only needs to snap a pic about once a minute. It doesn't have to be 20 fps or anything. "White caps don't lie, wind sensors do" is how I feel about it.
Here is a great beach cam. Imagine having this in a few spots. It has presets that show where kiters/windsurfers ride and the ability to zoom in and pan. Overkill for what would work, but pretty cool. I was zoomed in on Bob one day while he was out there and we were talking on the cell. Pretty cool.
http://cams.exploratorium.edu:8010/
If you are up early like me, wait for sun to come up. It's only 3:30 am where that cam is (at the moment).