Wind Statistics for Ithaca

The following pages show statistics for wind speeds and temperatures in Ithaca. The data are collected automatically from the Hourly Weather Conditions, which are measured by the Ithaca Weather Station at Game Farm Road. The annotations about the windsurfing and sailing sessions are mine.

This table can help to convert the windspeeds from MPH:

Beaufort Knots Mph Appearance on water
0 under 1 under 1 Water like a mirror.
1 1-3 knots 1-3 mph Dull areas on the water (not glassy).
2 4-6 knots 4-6 mph Small wavelets.
3 7-10 knots 8-12 mph Small wavelets, maybe a couple of whitecaps.
4 11-16 knots 13-18 mph Small waves, whitecaps.
5 17-21 knots 19-24 mph Medium waves, whitecaps.
6 22-27 knots 25-31 mph Large waves, whitecaps everywhere, a little spray off the water.
7 28-33 knots 32-38 mph Large waves, whitecaps everywhere, spray off the water.
8 34-40 knots 39-46 mph Big swells of greater length, streaks of white spray from the water.
9 41-47 knots 47-54 mph Huge swells, spray everywhere, walking is difficult.
10 48-55 knots 55-63 mph Huge waves, hard to see, spray everywhere.


This file is maintained by Eric Lafortune (eric@graphics.cornell.edu).