How to read the 'winds' map to spot wind shear?

[Kyamites]

What am I looking for on that map to spot wind shear?
And how do the varying altitudes come into consideration?
My assumption is that you're looking for a region of very high winds shared on all altitudes but what I could find on Google and Youtube didn't really help me figure it out.

[RDFox76]

The winds charts are... complex, to say the least, and I really suggest you look up a Youtube tutorial on how to read "upper-air charts" and "vertical wind profiler" data, but here's the short version as I know it (as someone firmly into Dunning-Kruger territory when it comes to meteorology, having asked a friend who got a degree in it in the Air Force and spent a decade forecasting in North Dakota with them to try and teach me the basics):

Wind shear is any significant change in wind speed or direction over a relatively small distance. The shear that you're looking for as regards tornadoes is vertical shear, where speed and direction change with the height you're looking at, which is why you have the charts shown for three different pressure levels. 250 millibars corresponds to about 34,000 feet, and is good for identifying where the jet stream is. 500 millibars corresponds to a bit over 18,000 feet, and is used to determine the "thickness" of the atmosphere. 850 millibars corresponds to about 4800 feet, and is great for identifying the low-level jet. Ideally, we'd have another chart, for 700 millibars (about 10,000 feet), which shows the steering currents that set storm motion, but we don't, so you have to extrapolate it as being about halfway between the 850 and 500 mb chart values.

When you look at the wind barbs--the things that look like half of an archer's arrow--the way to read them is that the head of the barb is where the measurement is, the shaft of the barb is pointing in the direction the wind is coming *from*, and the fletching-like lines at the tail of the shaft represent the wind speed. A full-length line represents 10 knots, a half-length one represents 5 knots, and if you see a little flag/pennant triangle, that represents 50 knots. Take all the lines on a given barb, add them together, and you get the wind speed at that point and height. (You can also see these barbs on the "Surface" display, along with temperature and dewpoint.)

When it comes to reading the wind shear: In general, the winds should get stronger as you get higher above the ground. If they don't, there's something very wrong that you probably need a couple years of college meteorology classes to figure out. The key to seeing good shear that will feed a tornado is to look for what's known as "veering with height." If the winds are swinging around in a clockwise direction, that's known as "veering," while if they're swinging around in a counterclockwise one, that's known as "backing." Veering with height simply means that you look at the chart and see that, as you move up each step in height from the surface, the winds have swung around in a clockwise direction from the last one. Veering with height is a good sign for tornadoes.

A favorable pattern for tornado formation is for the surface winds to be out of the south or south-southeast, and each layer above that being further around towards the west than the layer below, with the 500mb winds being basically out of the due southwest. (If the 500mb winds are out of another direction, just mentally rotate those directions around to match.) The 250mb chart is... well, for purposes of "nowcasting" like we're doing in game, it's pretty much useless except to verify how deep the shear is (deeper shear == stronger storms). The 850mb chart, however, is excellent for finding "hot spots" in the low-level jet--if you see a spot on the 850 chart that's got particularly high winds, and it's feeding into a storm cell as located on reflectivity, that's like pouring gasoline onto the fire, and that cell will probably intensify rapidly.

That said, I primarily check the wind charts at the *start* of the scenario, to get a feel for how the storms will be moving and if there's any place that looks explosive. Once I get a good read on where things are likely to happen and start moving, I usually rely on the radar products as my primary guidance, referring to the MLCAPE and 850mb charts when I'm not busy driving or observing an individual cell to scan for anything explosive.

Yes, this is the *short* version! (The long version involves a year at Keesler AFB getting a four-year meteorological degree course forced into your brain in that time, plus a year apprenticing as an observer, and *hoping* you come out of it no crazier than you were when you went into it...)

[ETXBONES]

Originally posted by RDFox76:

The winds charts are... complex, to say the least, and I really suggest you look up a Youtube tutorial on how to read "upper-air charts" and "vertical wind profiler" data, but here's the short version as I know it (as someone firmly into Dunning-Kruger territory when it comes to meteorology, having asked a friend who got a degree in it in the Air Force and spent a decade forecasting in North Dakota with them to try and teach me the basics):

Wind shear is any significant change in wind speed or direction over a relatively small distance. The shear that you're looking for as regards tornadoes is vertical shear, where speed and direction change with the height you're looking at, which is why you have the charts shown for three different pressure levels. 250 millibars corresponds to about 34,000 feet, and is good for identifying where the jet stream is. 500 millibars corresponds to a bit over 18,000 feet, and is used to determine the "thickness" of the atmosphere. 850 millibars corresponds to about 4800 feet, and is great for identifying the low-level jet. Ideally, we'd have another chart, for 700 millibars (about 10,000 feet), which shows the steering currents that set storm motion, but we don't, so you have to extrapolate it as being about halfway between the 850 and 500 mb chart values.

When you look at the wind barbs--the things that look like half of an archer's arrow--the way to read them is that the head of the barb is where the measurement is, the shaft of the barb is pointing in the direction the wind is coming *from*, and the fletching-like lines at the tail of the shaft represent the wind speed. A full-length line represents 10 knots, a half-length one represents 5 knots, and if you see a little flag/pennant triangle, that represents 50 knots. Take all the lines on a given barb, add them together, and you get the wind speed at that point and height. (You can also see these barbs on the "Surface" display, along with temperature and dewpoint.)

When it comes to reading the wind shear: In general, the winds should get stronger as you get higher above the ground. If they don't, there's something very wrong that you probably need a couple years of college meteorology classes to figure out. The key to seeing good shear that will feed a tornado is to look for what's known as "veering with height." If the winds are swinging around in a clockwise direction, that's known as "veering," while if they're swinging around in a counterclockwise one, that's known as "backing." Veering with height simply means that you look at the chart and see that, as you move up each step in height from the surface, the winds have swung around in a clockwise direction from the last one. Veering with height is a good sign for tornadoes.

A favorable pattern for tornado formation is for the surface winds to be out of the south or south-southeast, and each layer above that being further around towards the west than the layer below, with the 500mb winds being basically out of the due southwest. (If the 500mb winds are out of another direction, just mentally rotate those directions around to match.) The 250mb chart is... well, for purposes of "nowcasting" like we're doing in game, it's pretty much useless except to verify how deep the shear is (deeper shear == stronger storms). The 850mb chart, however, is excellent for finding "hot spots" in the low-level jet--if you see a spot on the 850 chart that's got particularly high winds, and it's feeding into a storm cell as located on reflectivity, that's like pouring gasoline onto the fire, and that cell will probably intensify rapidly.

That said, I primarily check the wind charts at the *start* of the scenario, to get a feel for how the storms will be moving and if there's any place that looks explosive. Once I get a good read on where things are likely to happen and start moving, I usually rely on the radar products as my primary guidance, referring to the MLCAPE and 850mb charts when I'm not busy driving or observing an individual cell to scan for anything explosive.

Yes, this is the *short* version! (The long version involves a year at Keesler AFB getting a four-year meteorological degree course forced into your brain in that time, plus a year apprenticing as an observer, and *hoping* you come out of it no crazier than you were when you went into it...)

Just wanted to chime in and say this is a great description!

[Kyamites]

Thanks for the 'short' version!
Went through it 'step by step' with the game open and it made things a lot clearer.

[VanderSalad]

Originally posted by RDFox76:

The winds charts are... complex, to say the least, and I really suggest you look up a Youtube tutorial on how to read "upper-air charts" and "vertical wind profiler" data, but here's the short version as I know it (as someone firmly into Dunning-Kruger territory when it comes to meteorology, having asked a friend who got a degree in it in the Air Force and spent a decade forecasting in North Dakota with them to try and teach me the basics):

Wind shear is any significant change in wind speed or direction over a relatively small distance. The shear that you're looking for as regards tornadoes is vertical shear, where speed and direction change with the height you're looking at, which is why you have the charts shown for three different pressure levels. 250 millibars corresponds to about 34,000 feet, and is good for identifying where the jet stream is. 500 millibars corresponds to a bit over 18,000 feet, and is used to determine the "thickness" of the atmosphere. 850 millibars corresponds to about 4800 feet, and is great for identifying the low-level jet. Ideally, we'd have another chart, for 700 millibars (about 10,000 feet), which shows the steering currents that set storm motion, but we don't, so you have to extrapolate it as being about halfway between the 850 and 500 mb chart values.

When you look at the wind barbs--the things that look like half of an archer's arrow--the way to read them is that the head of the barb is where the measurement is, the shaft of the barb is pointing in the direction the wind is coming *from*, and the fletching-like lines at the tail of the shaft represent the wind speed. A full-length line represents 10 knots, a half-length one represents 5 knots, and if you see a little flag/pennant triangle, that represents 50 knots. Take all the lines on a given barb, add them together, and you get the wind speed at that point and height. (You can also see these barbs on the "Surface" display, along with temperature and dewpoint.)

When it comes to reading the wind shear: In general, the winds should get stronger as you get higher above the ground. If they don't, there's something very wrong that you probably need a couple years of college meteorology classes to figure out. The key to seeing good shear that will feed a tornado is to look for what's known as "veering with height." If the winds are swinging around in a clockwise direction, that's known as "veering," while if they're swinging around in a counterclockwise one, that's known as "backing." Veering with height simply means that you look at the chart and see that, as you move up each step in height from the surface, the winds have swung around in a clockwise direction from the last one. Veering with height is a good sign for tornadoes.

A favorable pattern for tornado formation is for the surface winds to be out of the south or south-southeast, and each layer above that being further around towards the west than the layer below, with the 500mb winds being basically out of the due southwest. (If the 500mb winds are out of another direction, just mentally rotate those directions around to match.) The 250mb chart is... well, for purposes of "nowcasting" like we're doing in game, it's pretty much useless except to verify how deep the shear is (deeper shear == stronger storms). The 850mb chart, however, is excellent for finding "hot spots" in the low-level jet--if you see a spot on the 850 chart that's got particularly high winds, and it's feeding into a storm cell as located on reflectivity, that's like pouring gasoline onto the fire, and that cell will probably intensify rapidly.

That said, I primarily check the wind charts at the *start* of the scenario, to get a feel for how the storms will be moving and if there's any place that looks explosive. Once I get a good read on where things are likely to happen and start moving, I usually rely on the radar products as my primary guidance, referring to the MLCAPE and 850mb charts when I'm not busy driving or observing an individual cell to scan for anything explosive.

Yes, this is the *short* version! (The long version involves a year at Keesler AFB getting a four-year meteorological degree course forced into your brain in that time, plus a year apprenticing as an observer, and *hoping* you come out of it no crazier than you were when you went into it...)

I am over two months late but in all my on and off efforts to get an understanding of how to use the wind charts in game, all of my efforts have proven to be fruitless until just now coming across this post. Thank you so much for the insane detail in this description

[Enter500]

Originally posted by RDFox76:

The winds charts are... complex, to say the least, and I really suggest you look up a Youtube tutorial on how to read "upper-air charts" and "vertical wind profiler" data, but here's the short version as I know it (as someone firmly into Dunning-Kruger territory when it comes to meteorology, having asked a friend who got a degree in it in the Air Force and spent a decade forecasting in North Dakota with them to try and teach me the basics):

Wind shear is any significant change in wind speed or direction over a relatively small distance. The shear that you're looking for as regards tornadoes is vertical shear, where speed and direction change with the height you're looking at, which is why you have the charts shown for three different pressure levels. 250 millibars corresponds to about 34,000 feet, and is good for identifying where the jet stream is. 500 millibars corresponds to a bit over 18,000 feet, and is used to determine the "thickness" of the atmosphere. 850 millibars corresponds to about 4800 feet, and is great for identifying the low-level jet. Ideally, we'd have another chart, for 700 millibars (about 10,000 feet), which shows the steering currents that set storm motion, but we don't, so you have to extrapolate it as being about halfway between the 850 and 500 mb chart values.

When you look at the wind barbs--the things that look like half of an archer's arrow--the way to read them is that the head of the barb is where the measurement is, the shaft of the barb is pointing in the direction the wind is coming *from*, and the fletching-like lines at the tail of the shaft represent the wind speed. A full-length line represents 10 knots, a half-length one represents 5 knots, and if you see a little flag/pennant triangle, that represents 50 knots. Take all the lines on a given barb, add them together, and you get the wind speed at that point and height. (You can also see these barbs on the "Surface" display, along with temperature and dewpoint.)

When it comes to reading the wind shear: In general, the winds should get stronger as you get higher above the ground. If they don't, there's something very wrong that you probably need a couple years of college meteorology classes to figure out. The key to seeing good shear that will feed a tornado is to look for what's known as "veering with height." If the winds are swinging around in a clockwise direction, that's known as "veering," while if they're swinging around in a counterclockwise one, that's known as "backing." Veering with height simply means that you look at the chart and see that, as you move up each step in height from the surface, the winds have swung around in a clockwise direction from the last one. Veering with height is a good sign for tornadoes.

A favorable pattern for tornado formation is for the surface winds to be out of the south or south-southeast, and each layer above that being further around towards the west than the layer below, with the 500mb winds being basically out of the due southwest. (If the 500mb winds are out of another direction, just mentally rotate those directions around to match.) The 250mb chart is... well, for purposes of "nowcasting" like we're doing in game, it's pretty much useless except to verify how deep the shear is (deeper shear == stronger storms). The 850mb chart, however, is excellent for finding "hot spots" in the low-level jet--if you see a spot on the 850 chart that's got particularly high winds, and it's feeding into a storm cell as located on reflectivity, that's like pouring gasoline onto the fire, and that cell will probably intensify rapidly.

That said, I primarily check the wind charts at the *start* of the scenario, to get a feel for how the storms will be moving and if there's any place that looks explosive. Once I get a good read on where things are likely to happen and start moving, I usually rely on the radar products as my primary guidance, referring to the MLCAPE and 850mb charts when I'm not busy driving or observing an individual cell to scan for anything explosive.

Yes, this is the *short* version! (The long version involves a year at Keesler AFB getting a four-year meteorological degree course forced into your brain in that time, plus a year apprenticing as an observer, and *hoping* you come out of it no crazier than you were when you went into it...)

This is fantastic, thank you so much for all the details!

[Garodah]

Here's a chart made up by the NWS. Seems right for how OUTBRK is set up. Pretty close.
https://www.weather.gov/source/zhu/ZHU_Training_Page/Miscellaneous/chart_comparison/chart_comparison.htm

[Kyamites]

Originally posted by GarodahKing:

Here's a chart made up by the NWS. Seems right for how OUTBRK is set up. Pretty close.
https://www.weather.gov/source/zhu/ZHU_Training_Page/Miscellaneous/chart_comparison/chart_comparison.htm

Ohh thanks for that, looks like a good resource!

[NickySams]

I tend to do the same at the start of the session. I tend to check the CAPE map right at the start also just to see general areas with the ingredients. The CAPE maps aren't very useful once the storms start using the energy in the atmosphere though so later on, I rarely use it. Once the session is well underway though I pretty much stick to velo/reflectivity.