Saturday, February 26, 2011

How to read wind shear in a TAF

Wind shear - winds in an area blowing in different directions, or at different speeds, or both. This creates turbulence in a rolling motion. In the TAFs forecasters will issue a WS alert with the height it is expected along with its wind direction and speed. For WS that is expected for altitudes above 2000AGL

FM0800 07012KT 2SM -RA BR BKN008 OVC15 WS020/13045KT 
WS020/13045KT is the Wind Shear part it reads @ 2000' the winds will be at 130 (a difference of 60 from the surface winds from 070) and 45 KTS ( a difference of 33 from the surface winds that are at 12KTs).