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Description
An essential pocket-sized primer that equips sailors and outdoors enthusiasts with the knowledge to read and predict the weather.
Weather determines when we sail, where we sail to – and whether we arrive safely. This revised third edition provides all the necessary tools to predict and deal with all weather conditions, whether on a day trip or a longer cruise, along the coast or further offshore.
Each topic is broken down into digestible chapters, explaining the origins and effects of the full spectrum of weather conditions, including:
- Using and evaluating weather forecasts
- Coastal effects such as depressions, fronts and isobars
- Waves and swell
- Weather lore
- Sky watching
The field of meteorology is still advancing and sources of forecasts are constantly developing. This new edition keeps the handbook up-to-date, with revised sections and new material on computer weather products, satellite phones, internet access, changes in the availability of forecasts, climate change and the Coriolis effect.
With practical explanations and helpful diagrams and photographs, this is the ideal aide-memoire for skippers and crew, especially those studying for their Day Skipper and Yachtmaster exams.
Table of Contents
Air masses
-Understanding air masses
-Air directly from polar regions
-Air indirectly from polar regions
-Air from the subtropics
-Tropical air
-Air mass with a land track
-Fog
-Sea fog areas
-Other causes of sea fog
-Showers and thunderstorms
-Lightning
-Lightning protection
-Avoiding the risk
-Other dangers of thunderstorms
Fronts and depressions
-Frontal lows and their formation
-What you may see at sea level
-Occluded fronts
-Interpretation of synoptic charts
-Non-frontal lows
Sea and land effects
-How breezes are formed
-The sea breeze front
-What affects the sea breeze?
-Land breezes
-Sea/land breeze cycles
-How strong? How far out to sea? How far inland?
-Cliffs, straits and headlands
Waves and swell
-Understanding sea state
-Wind waves
-Swell
-Water depth and tidal stream
-Reflection and refraction
-Sea state – general advice
-Lagoon, bay and seiche effects
-Tsunamis
Weather forecasting – the background
-Why weather prediction is so difficult
-Before computers
-Numerical weather prediction (NWP)
-Limitations to NWP
-Ensembles and probability forecasts
-Grid spacing
-Small-scale NWP
Using forecasts – and your experience
-Planning
-Weather and whether to go?
-Day sailing and coastal passages
-Passage making
-Examples
-Learning by experience
-Ocean crossings
Sources of weather information
-Types of marine forecast available
-The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
-Forecast areas and schedules
-Forecast texts
-Other GMDSS services
-GRIB files and products
-Basic (free) services
-Processed or selected GRIB data
-Fine-scale GRIB data
-On prepayment
-Consultants
-Actual weather reports
Getting forecasts
-Radio or internet?
-Marine VHF and MF
-NAVTEX
-MF/HF/SSB radio
-The internet
-Internet access – coastal and ashore
-Internet access – long range
Observing – learning by experience
-Weather lore and rules of thumb Nowcasting
-Examples of unusual cloud patterns
-Mountain waves
-Bora cloud
-Mammatus cloud
Appendix
-Acronyms and abbreviations
-Meteorological terms
-Terms used in marine weather forecasts
-Beaufort wind scale
-Douglas sea state
-Gale and strong wind warnings
-Wind direction
-Visibility
-Terms used in UK Met Office forecasts
-Gale warning timings
-Movement of pressure systems
-Pressure tendency in station reports
-Sources of information
Index
Product details
| Published | Mar 17 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 3rd |
| Extent | 144 |
| ISBN | 9781399422734 |
| Imprint | Reeds |
| Illustrations | Colour diagrams and photographs throughout |
| Dimensions | 160 x 100 mm |
| Series | Reeds Handbooks |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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