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Topic: Wake lows...my new best friend (not)
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Chgodave
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posted June 25, 2024 04:52 PM
Last year I was 20 miles short of a 300 mile delivery and we had to deal with a particularly persistent and ugly line of squalls at night. There was a boat that we knew nearby so we mostly concentrated on not running into them. Finally, after some time, the storms ended. Expecting to enjoy a calm ride the rest of the way home, I was introduced to the wake low. An introduction I could have done without.
There are some decent Youtube videos that explain the formation and effects, but most of the articles are highly technical and oriented towards meteorology. I found very little useful to a mariner underway. So my questions are:
1) Is there a resource or article that explains them in detail without being highly technical
2) What are your thoughts/recommendations for predicting if one will form and how can cruisers minimize their exposure and how can racers best position themselves
Thanks
From: Chicago
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David Burch
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posted June 27, 2024 01:12 PM
Sorry to hear about that. We will look into this and report back.
In the meantime, what is it that convinces you that this is what you experienced, and what actually did you experience?
And where and when did it happen? Maybe we can find some archived data for the event. Do you have any model forecasts that cover the period?
Thanks.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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Chgodave
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posted July 07, 2024 08:45 AM
The end of the storm was about 5 am, July 29th 2023 (just before dawn). At this time we were perhaps about 15 miles or so north of Chicago, somewhere around Evanston or so. When the storm finally moved off to the south the skies cleared. We could still see lightning and hear faint thunder south of us. It seemed to be moving away quickly, but apparently was not done. Anyway, we were relieved to see it go and expected to be becalmed or at least experience light air. But the wind was blowing 15 with gusts a little higher. We were not complaining as our engine had suffered an overheating issue and could not be used over 10 minutes at a time. So we were thankful that there was wind to sail the last 15 miles home. Thanks
From: Chicago
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David Burch
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posted July 07, 2024 04:39 PM
Thanks, we are looking into this. Trying to find regional model data and obs.
Standard OPC maps (PYAA12.tif) are useless, and there was no ASCAT data over the Lake at this time.
We do see some pattern in the clouds moving very fast, so that is a start.
I am guessing this is more a land (or inland) effect, but we need to learn more first before concluding anything.
We are using all the WXT Archive Atlas links to get to the past data.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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