There’s a discussion thread on the marathonswimmers.org forum called Tips and Tricks and I’ve been writing my How To articles for a few years. But here’s a list of brief random items I’ve learned that I threw together, which individually are too short for articles (right now anyway, who knows what’ll be possible mid-winter when…
This post is now part the My Swimming Life, 2012 series. I must start with the Guillamenes and Tramore Bay and Kilfarassey of course, my main swimming locations. My usual range in Tramore Bay is between Newtown Head (under the pillars) to the beach, along the west side of the bay, most of the range…
There is no swimming in this post. I really wanted to get swim just for the fun of it, but there was no safe exit point except at the pier and I knew I’d cause mass panic there, probably resulting in Rescue 117 being called out again. Does this mean I am growing up? Surely…
When writing the article on how to swim in rough water, I acknowledged that it’s an area I need to do a bit more about. And the popularity of the post caught me a bit by surprise, as it always does when such happens. But I wasn’t sure what I could do next. After all…
I get asked various questions related to cold because I like to write about it. Those questions often inspire further writing ideas. One thing I realised was there was no good agreement on cold water. A poll of open water swimmers by DNOWS gave the following results. Under 5ºC (41ºF) – 0% Under 10ºC (50ºF) – 7%…
This article is, once again, a variation of the most popular question here: “What temperature of water is too cold to swim in”?, which I’ve written about before. The temperature at the Guillamene last Sunday week (October 16th, 2011) was about 13° Celsius (55° F). That’s far warmer than what most people will imagine, not…
From a quick check on the M5 buoy, I knew what the conditions were. But when I neared the coast for a new swim, the mist and fog closed in. I knew it probably wouldn’t be better right on the coast, and such was the case. Visibility was about 500 metres. Not too heavy but…
Following on from the discussion on hectopascals and atmospheric pressure: Let’s use the same chart again. This time you know what the numbers mean, various high and low pressure areas. But there are different kinds of lines to be seen also. In this chart we are concerned with five types light black line with numbers…
Courtesy of another search that brings people here, and following Hurricane Katya last week and the synoptic chart that I linked for it. So we’ve started with that same synoptic chart again. In this chart we have a low pressure area, Hurricane Katya, north west of Ireland, in sea area Rockall, right in the centre at…
When you are in Dover weather is the beginning and end of everything. We felt we had a better handle on the coming storm to hit Ireland as we were trying to get a good of idea of what coming toward the Strait. Everyone in Ireland today knows it’s windy (but really unusually it’s dry,…
You don’t have to be planning a swim to get used to watching the Dover weather. Maybe you have friends over there. Maybe you’re thinking about the distance future. Maybe you’re just a Channel junkie. First there’s the Shipping Forecast for the immediate future. Of course, you’ll also want to understand it.This what the pilots use.…
Pity the video quality isn´t better on this. Slightly better quality but shorter clip.
Some great video of a waterspout caught off Australia. Make sure to watch it in higher resolution.
Weatherspark. With plenty of graph porn like this: You can choose your graphs. Locations seem a bit limited for the moment, Cork airport but not Waterford.
Coming home from Cork yesterday, the conditions driving across by the Comeraghs were terrible, in fact from Dungarvan to Carrick there was often heavy snow for miles on end. By last night everything had frozen to lethality. So when I looked out this morning and saw this: I of course immediately thought, “I must…
Part 2. Almost done. Obviously meteorology is a far more complex subject than the thumbnail I’m giving again. I’m just covering some of the major influencing factors for Ireland and the North East Atlantic. So last time we saw some of the prevailing winds ran opposite those across Ireland. To explain these difference we need…
I finished Part 1 with the Coriolis effect. I said last time that the warmer air at the equator flows toward the poles. The Coriolis Effect impacts this to cause the major weather patterns. Since the world is a sphere, the surface of the earth at the equator is moving much faster than the surface…
“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get” – Mark Twain So I’ve written about the Shipping News and the databuoys and waves and wind etc. I thought I might do some more on the weather subject and move up to a bigger scale, particularly as it affects Ireland and the North Atlantic.…
I though I’d continue on from yesterday’s post and talk about how to interpret the radio sea weather forecasts. In Ireland we get the Sea Area Forecast, also called the Marine Forecast on RTE Radio 1 (which comes from Met Eireann) twice a day. In the UK it’s more famously know as The Shipping News.…
One thing I’ve really noticed a lot this year is the inability of many swimmers to accurately gauge wind speed and water conditions. The way to do this is the Beaufort Scale, which measures wind speed based on empirical observed conditions. (It is, by the way, named after an Irish explorer and British Navy Admiral.)…
Part 1 – Theory So, why a different post for what we can call the observed local effects? Well, depending where you are in the world, this may not be needed. There are some places where the observed local effects match those predicted by theory. However, why isn’t that the case for everywhere? Simply, the…
One occasional bee I have in my swimming bonnet is the lack of understanding of tides amongst many OW swimmers. It is however quite understandable, if the location where you swim isn’t particularly affected by tides. But what about expedition swim planning or trips to spots you don’t know? Or from a safety point of…
If you want to swim Open Water more safely at the coast it’s a good idea to develop some understanding of various aspects of your environment. This is a thumbnail sketch of breaking coastal waves for swimmers. 1: Waves are mostly caused by wind, either close or far-away. 2: There are many days without waves.…
Those who don’t swim in the swim much are often confused about what temperature to expect. The specific heat capacity of the ocean is greater than land or the atmosphere. This mean it’s will stay at a specific temperature and not quickly change. The volume of the ocean contributes to it retaining heat, as only…
LoneSwimmer 