Why is wind directon expressed as "FROM"?

JohnH wrote:
Is it me, or is wind direction bass ackwards?

Vectors normally indicate direction an object is moving, but not so
with wind.

Why is that?

The child asked his father, "Why does an elephant have such a funny nose?"
The father thought awhile, then replied, "Cause that's the way it is!"

That's pretty much the logic behind wind direction.

--

Darrell R. Schmidt
B-58 Hustler History: http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/
-

Garner Miller wrote:

The one that lets me roll out closest to the parking area. :-)

Let us hope it is not a 1,500 foot strip where the closer parking area
favors runway 10.

--
Peter

Larry Dighera wrote:

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:51:58 -0500, "JohnH"
wrote in ::

Why is that?

The convention is probably a result of the way a weather vane works;
the arrowhead points into the wind, so a compass rose placed under it
indicates the direction of the wind's origin.

I'm pretty sure that is confusing cause and effect. I suspect that the
explanation is the one others have given about the source of the wind
being relevant to weather. Weather vanes could easily have been built
with no "tailfeathers" and a big arrowhead if the convention had been
the other way.
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.

Jose wrote:

I suspect it's a holdover from weather. You don't care where wind is
going (for the purposes of weather prediction) but you do care where it
came from (as that gives hints as to what kind of airmass will be
arriving, and what it will bring with it).

Actually this is incorrect. Which way the air is moving here and now
doesn't tell us about what weather we can expect in the future, it only
tells us who is going to inherit our current weather. To figure out
what weather we are going to get, you'd have to look at weather that is
being blown towards us by the winds in its area - and for predictions
of more than an hour or two into the future, the location of the
weather being blown towards us may not be that from which our current
local wind is yet arriving.

Of course real weather prediction also looks at things like local
pressures.

JohnH wrote:
Is it me, or is wind direction bass ackwards?

It's just you.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Actually this is incorrect. Which way the air is moving here and now
doesn't tell us about what weather we can expect in the future

In the days before professional weather guessers on TV, it was useful
enough.

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

JohnH wrote:
Is it me, or is wind direction bass ackwards?

Vectors normally indicate direction an object is moving, but not so with
wind.

Why is that?



May the wind at your back be your own.

I suspect that it comes from the days of sailing ships. All of your course
decisions are based on the direction of the wind. Tacking, running,
reaching, etc. are all referred to the current wind direction. I'm not sure
I fully understand why FROM was chosen as the convention, but when you're
sailing, you tend to keep the wind in your face unless you're running.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:51:58 -0500, "JohnH"
wrote in ::

Why is that?

The convention is probably a result of the way a weather vane works;
the arrowhead points into the wind, so a compass rose placed under it
indicates the direction of the wind's origin.

"Jose" wrote in message
. ..

I'd say the opposite - the vane is designed that way because we're
interested in where the hot air came from.

One could easily design a vane that worked the other way.


Most weather vanes I've seen are of the simple arrow type. A weather vane
of that type that pointed the other way would be counterintuitive, the arrow
would be "flying" backward.

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...

How would you do that?


The shape doesn't matter. All that's required is greater surface area on
the downwind side of the pivot point.