Originally Posted by
tessellahedron
I took a video but you can barely hear me talking at all over the wind, and I can't figure out how to post it anyway. My phone sucks, it took 8 shots to get a 360, but here they are. This is where I turned around this morning, some place in Nebraska.
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I'm beginning to doubt that I'll find a way to relate the Google forecast to real world conditions. They may simply be independent. This morning was supposedly light wind, 11 or 12mph, but the roar/howl was pretty consistent and strong enough that riding into it was exhausting. Haven't yet switched to sailflow, windy or windfinder. Probably in the next few rides.
I'm trying out some dirt riding for many reasons but one big one is that I think my speed will be much lower. It seems like the relationship between air speed and aerodynamic drag is non-linear. If that's true, going a little slower should reduce the drag significantly.
I always enjoy new routes but I do feel that I enjoyed this morning's ride more than I would have if I'd been on the highway with that wind.
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Wind seems to be variable most of the time. I've never heard of a forecast that shows wind speed ranges or probabilities like it does for rain!
There's an app that reports headwind and tailwind durations for an uploaded GPS recording, since it has the local weather data and the timing of the ride. I've seen a few cyclists show it, and it doesn't seem that helpful or accurate.
Here in Ohio, we had some windy forecasts in the spring and early summer, so I was paying more attention to conditions on those days.
Chaotic wind speeds
I noticed that the predicted "12 mph, gusts of 18" was quite variable most of the time. Maybe I'd see 4 mph, then 10, 14, 8 mph, etc. Chaotic. The wind came in gusts of various durations. And some windy days seemed to be windy even down into the sheltered woodland roads. Other times, the woods and valleys seemed calmer. I suppose the wind / air movements and gusts are vertical, not just horizontal.