Pressure-Wind Triangles of the Pacific Northwest
With inspiration and assistance from Dr. Wolf Read, also known as The Storm King, who utilized pressure-wind triangles in his analysis of historical Pacific Northwest wind storms, I have developed this webpage to study real-time pressure-wind triangles. Using a geostrophic wind calculator developed by Bjarne Hansen in 1988, I have modified the original model and added additional functionality and formulas that incorporate real-time weather station data. This allows for the display of pressure-wind triangles along the West Coast of the United States. The is a beta site that is currently under construction.
Additional updates and additions are likely. If you have questions, you can reach me at john@johnrinier.com
The real-time pressure-wind triangles below, updated every 10 minutes, use the Geostrophic formula to convert(rotate) latitudes and longitudes into Cartesian coordinates in order to calculate the geostrophic Uv and Ug vector components. Several SQL stored procedures then iterate through these formulas using weather station data gathered from the internet.
With the pressure gradient and bearing derived from each triangle, additional scripts, using the Haversine formula and the Law of Cosines, calculate the respective intersection points. These triangles and points are then plotted on a graphical map.
You can click on the triangles and markers to view additional details. Stay tuned for more updates!