Detailed Course Content
The topics set out in the RYA Weather Handbook form the foundation.
Each of these topics is carefully and fully explained for you to acquire a sound understanding of the underlying principles.
Don't be put off by some of the technical terms below - they just represent the sub-headings of topics, some of which are scientific terms for straightforward ideas, all of which are demistified by the explanations.
The principles of basic theory
Global circulation
Weather systems
Front formations (cold, warm and occluded) & their development
Common weather features
Cloud types and weather
Stable & unstable air
Convections: gust fronts, updrafts, lulls
Squall line structure
Thunderstorm structure
Types of fog, sea fret, formation and dispersal
Specific features
Crosswinds
Sea and land breezes
Anabatic and katabatic winds
Wind and local geographic features
Coastal convergence
Relationship between wind and waves
Wave structure: wind, swell, strength, fetch
Fetch & changes in direction & speed
Weather processes in more detail
Condensation levels
Upper air conveyor belts
Wind, air density and pressure systems
Coriolis effect
Pressure gradients
Geostrophic wind
Surface wind
Weather forecasting
Satellite imagery:
Meteosat - infra red and visible
Water vapour imagery
Surface analysis charts: pressure, temperature, humidity
Synoptic charts(weather maps)
Building charts from surface data
Local and meso-scale applications
Buy Ballots law
Isobars & wind speed calculation at geostrophic and surface level
Calculating and forecasting wave height
Swell propagation and calculation
‘On deck’ prediction from readily observable weather features:
Wind change, crosswinds rules
Clouds
Pressure changes, standard & skipper’s scale
Temperature
Wind & course/passage planning
Avoidance
Use of radar for identifying immanent weather
Bad weather and tropical storm avoidance
Wider horizons
Global air masses: origins, definitions and behaviour
Mediterranean weather: the ten winds, typical sea states
Different sources of weather information & recommended web sites (inc. GRIB files)