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Old 09-08-2010, 10:28 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Default Severe Squall Lofting In Great Lakes

There was a nasty lofting accident in a cold front squall line in the Great Lakes a few days back. The cold front was creeping across North America for days with the embedded squalls visible to anyone who looked at it on radar.

The squall line was visible to the folks on the lake as well, at least 20 minutes out from reports. The vast majority of kiters landed and secured well before the squall arrived. Three riders chose to not land despite the obvious incoming weather hazard. Two kiters were forced by the strong winds to set their kites free but one was unable to do so. He was lofted several times eventually into some rocks suffering multiple broken bones in both legs, severe head injury resulting in a two day coma and other injuries. He has traumatic brain injury as a result of the impact which may present some challenges in recovery. One account says he was heading out into the storm while another said he was waiting for an assisted landing. He was flying a 12 m kite. He is described as a careful guy who wears a helmet for kayaking and bicycling, just not for kiting.

This man is fighting hard through some serious injuries, let's wish him the best in his recovery.

The squall line was estimated to have past over well within an hour with even better winds filling in after the storms cleared. As Great Lake squalls go, this one wasn't that powerful but strong enough to do some serious harm to this rider. If folks had been looking at Internet resources seeing this hazardous squall line hours, even days in advance would have been easy. No session is worth this kind of harm. None of the three kiters was able to keep his kite under control in this fairly weak squall. You never know what sort of winds a squall will throw out until it is on you. There were even stronger squall spikes in the area within a week of this tragic event.
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Old 09-08-2010, 10:29 PM
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So, how to try to avoid stuff like this from happening? Wearing reasonable safety gear is always a good idea, physically and mentally rehearsing what to do in a high wind emergency. The BEST thing to do is to work to avoid the hazard in the first place.



The launch was located along the northern shore of Lake Erie near "A." To makes things more productive, links to weather resources are below each of the figures below for future reference if folks want to try to avoid repeating this accident.

If you have an idea about what sort of weather is expected, when and you pay attention to changes, acting early, you improve the odds of better wind and weather conditions while reducing the chances of tangling with weather hazards. One approach is described below with actual imagery of conditions prior to this sad accident.


So, what winds are forecast, temperatures, CHANGES through the day including wind speed, direction and when, HAZARD forecast at the launch and up weather?
A) WEATHER & HAZARD FORECAST:
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/marin....html?mapID=11
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/...Select=WEATHER
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/marin....html?mapID=11




B) WEATHER MAP: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/noaa/noaa.gif
A massive cold front had moved east for several days, the blue line.



C) RADAR: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?r...101111&loop=no
Here is the squall line about FOUR HOURS before the accident with lots of obvious embedded storms. Apparently it had collided with a warm front, occluding it and then there was Hurricane Earl hanging in the ocean just to the east.




D) SATELLITE: http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ECIR4.html (there may be better local images than this for your area)
This shows the size of the cold front and Earl spinning just off to the right.



E) REAL TIME WINDS UPWEATHER: Finally, here is the wind graph for around the time of the accident from a station about 20 miles to the east. Nice squall spike that approximates the wind gusts estimated at the launch.


Weather planning and monitoring isn't that hard to do. It can improve your quality of riding, reduce idle wind waiting and help to reduce the odds of falling into weather hazards. If you ignore squalls, you are setting yourself up for a real bad situation one of these days. There have been so many avoidable injuries over the years to folks that didn't give weather hazards enough consideration. If you see a squall line, plan to have your kite secured well before it passes over, DON'T plan on riding through it! If you screw up badly and still have your kite as it moves in, Emergency Depower (kill the kite's power fully) and be prepared to set the kite free if it fails to depower properly. Don't stand there waiting for an assisted landing, too many guys have been hurt doing just that. Hope real hard there is no one downwind to be hurt by your kite if you set it free.
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Last edited by ricki; 09-08-2010 at 11:00 PM.
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Old 11-08-2010, 08:45 PM
SpaceRacer SpaceRacer is offline
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Does anyone know where i/we could get some weather training and education? Preferably something good, easy, fun, affordable lol. Not too psyched about the prospect of sitting in front of a computer for hours to do this but would be willing as a last resort. Any ideas or references?
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Old 11-09-2010, 03:18 AM
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With what application in mind? There is a lot on the Internet but if you would prefer something in person, FIU, UM and other colleges have some meteo courses too.

Here is a good general site" http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/home.rxml

Here is a good pro site: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/

There is even one for kids: http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
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