Forecast Exercise: Direction of the Maximum Wind Gust.

Hypothetical sounding for wind gust forecast exercise

Determine the wind direction of maximum wind gust.
It may help to open the table of pressure vs. height in a standard atmosphere.
Enter your answer in the text box below, then click Done.

Dir = °

The correct answer is 215°.
In this case, 700 hPa is about 10,000 feet above the surface and 600 hPa is about 14,000 feet above the surface, so the 600-700 hPa is the level of interest. The mean wind direction in that layer is about 215°.

Note that the surface winds are from the southeast, and if they continue that direction into the afternoon, the forecaster may want to pay special attention to alert aviation interests of a sudden shift from southeast to strong southwesterly wind gusts at the surface in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

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