Your weather briefing
Good meteorological knowledge comes from a fascination with the weather and practice. During training, you should prepare for each lesson with a weather briefing and pitch it to your instructor. You'll see how quickly you improve.
When boating, strong winds and thunderstorms are the main hazards we want to identify before leaving the proverbial “safe harbor.”
Sometimes it is local phenomena such as the foehn window in the picture that provide information about the expected weather.
Like all VSMS association schools, the Ankerfels Academy has a safety concept for its area, which describes expected winds and weather phenomena and specifies a response in the event of a surprise thunderstorm (which does not exist with a weather briefing).
Here you will find the procedure for a weather briefing (with the respective links) and below that resources to help you learn how to better assess the weather.
From big to small
The general weather situation:
Start with the surface pressure map and read what the general situation is.
Use the MeteoSchweiz app to do this. Click on Weather Report (1) and then on the Fronts tab (2) on the far right.
Please note that the maps have a time stamp (3) and are only valid for that time.
Answer the following questions for your region:
Where are the high-pressure and low-pressure areas?
Are there any fronts that are relevant to us?
How close together are the isobars (close isobars promise strong winds)?
How to read a weather map on p. 12
Precipitation and wind
In the same app, we now go to “Animation” (4), the rain radar. Here, you can classify a possible front in terms of time (5) and assess its strength and activity.
The wind animation gives us a quick overview of the winds we can expect. We are not interested in the high winds here, but rather the wind near the ground (6) and any gusts (below).
Finally, under “Hazards” (7) on lakes (8), you can see whether strong wind or storm warnings are active for your lake.
If you are not yet at the lake, you can quickly verify whether the expected weather matches the webcam images. For the Obersee lake above Altendorf, we recommend the live cams from the Hensa shipyard and from a farm above Altendorf.
There are better solutions for wind that work with different forecasts. For the weather briefing, this information is sufficient, free, and meaningful for wind and thunderstorms.
With this information, you can summarize your briefing as follows:
"The general weather situation is...
In the next 3 hours, I expect...
...the lesson can/cannot take place."
Speaking "Meteo"
“You learn about meteorology by making a forecast in the morning and then observing and comparing what actually happens throughout the day.” (translated, paraphrased, Willi Dysli, meteorology expert and head of training at Grenchen Flight School)
Meteorology is a very broad field in which there is always more to learn and experience. To navigate the lakes in Switzerland, we recommend the publication: Typical weather conditions in the Alpine region by MeteoSchweiz.
There you will learn about and describe the most important weather phenomena in Switzerland. If you only have an hour to invest in meteorology, this is where you should start.
We look forward to your next meteorology briefing at the lake!
