There are two forecasts for surface winds that are used in the EZWxBrief progressive web app. This includes a forecast for prevailing wind speed and wind gusts at airports within the EZWxBrief domain. These are displayed on the map as a station marker for wind speed, wind gust or wind barbs that include both velocity and direction as shown below. In the layer selector, choose the Station Markers layer, then choose Surface Wind Speed and set the switch to on for Barbs.
The departure advisor includes an evaluation for personal weather minimums for the crosswind component at the departure and destination airports. Shown below is the settings for the departure airport with the personal minimum set to 12 knots (right-most setting) and the conservative personal minimum set to 6 knots (left-most setting). In this example for the departure airport, this directs EZWxBrief to look at all possible runways at the departure airport as entered in the proposed route to determine if the forecast crosswind component is greater than or equal to 12 knots. If this is the case, it means that the crosswind personal weather minimum has been exceeded and in the EZDeparture Advisor it will show up as red (third element from the top). Please note that this does NOT consider the wind gust forecast (if any).
If the forecast crosswind component is less than 6 knots, then in this example, the crosswind component has met the personal weather minimum with a conservative margin and will show up as green in the EZDeparture Advisor. If the forecast crosswind component is 7 to 11 knots, this means that it has met the personal weather minimum, but is marginal and will show up as yellow on the EZDeparture Advisor as it does in this particular example for a departure at 1500Z. Therefore, red represents a high risk, yellow a moderate risk and green is a low risk.
Interested in learning more about the Skew-T? You can order your copy of The Skew-T log (p) and Me book today in soft cover or eBook format.
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBrief™
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
