Historical wind data source?

[tlh2865]

Does anybody have a source for historical wind data? I am planning stand locations and want a general idea of the occurrence of certain wind directions with time of year.

 

[BenAllgood]

This is an average over multiple years for direction and speed for winds. https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/windrose.html

 

[Mennoniteman]

Historical data isn't going to be accurate enough for stand locations unless your property is totally flat. Wind does some very strange things that are hard to figure out, especially if there are ridges, bluffs, draws, and valleys. I've hunted in stands where the breeze consistently went directly into what was the prevailing wind shown by the "wind rose" on the chart. Waiting until the wind is showing as blowing from the prevailing direction on a good wind map such as windy.com, then going out to the stand location several times and checking wind direction right there is what works good for me. I have various stands where the wind is from all points of the compass when our prevailing wind is NW, but these locations are very consistent, it's always the same, so after getting the direction nailed down it's always predictable from there on out.

 

[X-farmerdan]

Does anybody have a source for historical wind data? I am planning stand locations and want a general idea of the occurrence of certain wind directions with time of year.

Professionally, when I want climate records I go here:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/search

No time to get into the pluses and minuses. This is data from the National Weather Service COOP Observer data network. Here in Virginia there are over 100. Some are resourced by volunteers. Others are maintained by NWS. Some record and report wind. Others do not.

Somewhere, and I can't find it at the moment, there's a database of wind direction and speeds for 2 and five minute intervals, daily, over a long period of time. I'll find it if it's still available.

As a general planning and learning tool, this data is valuable and useful if for no other reason than to challenge long held personal beliefs and assumptions. For me, in the areas I archery hunt, I found a lot more south winds in the fall than I ever thought possible. And, the minute-by-minute stuff illustrates how predominate wind directions can change from morning to evening.

True, it doesn't help with thermals - or does it?

 

[X-farmerdan]

Never have been here before - looks promising

https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/dataset/wind-roses-charts-and-tabular-data

 

[X-farmerdan]

Never, ever give up!
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/lcd

If you can figure it out, there's hourly wind speed, gusts, and direction for 1,600 stations in the United States. Is it useful? Up to you....

Here's a snapshot of Christmas Day data for somewhere in Mississippi. Downloaded as a comma seperated value (csv) file and opened with Excel. The attachment, below is the same source but presented in .pdf format. Its for somewhere in MN.

 

[dogghr]

Never, ever give up!
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/lcd

If you can figure it out, there's hourly wind speed, gusts, and direction for 1,600 stations in the United States. Is it useful? Up to you....

Here's a snapshot of Christmas Day data for somewhere in Mississippi. Downloaded as a comma seperated value (csv) file and opened with Excel. The attachment, below is the same source but presented in .pdf format. Its for somewhere in MN.

View attachment 18014

Alway like your web charting sites you always track down Xfarmer. I really think if I asked the type a tree coyotes prefer to piss on you could find a gov site showing such. I mean this as a compliment.

 

[Tap]

Wundermap on the Weatherunderground site shows data from thousands of PWS (personal weather stations). Some PWS have rapid fire updates...every 30 seconds or so.
PWS will show you the SURFACE wind for that exact location so terrain will have an influence as to why the surface wind may or may not match the prevailing wind.
Historical prevailing wind data can show us the overall trends for a region, but we need to apply prevailing direction to actual surface behavior. There are surface patterns that we can deduce from prevailing patterns but it can be difficult in some areas with intricate terrain.

 

[BenAllgood]

Wundermap on the Weatherunderground site shows data from thousands of PWS (personal weather stations). Some PWS have rapid fire updates...every 30 seconds or so.
PWS will show you the SURFACE wind for that exact location so terrain will have an influence as to why the surface wind may or may not match the prevailing wind.
Historical prevailing wind data can show us the overall trends for a region, but we need to apply prevailing direction to actual surface behavior. There are surface patterns that we can deduce from prevailing patterns but it can be difficult in some areas with intricate terrain.

That got me thinking, which can often lead me down rabbit holes for days. But, does anyone have any experience with battery operated PWS that you've put at stand locations? Seems like you could take data for winds over a couple weeks at different stand sites to know exactly which winds did what at each stand making stand selection easier ahead of time.