Boulder Colorado Wave Forecast?

Hi,

A good friend of mine has invited me to join him at Mile High Gliding in
Boulder, CO for about 3 days if the forecast looks good for wave. If the
forecast is good I'll fly out sometime between Sunday and Tuesday evening
for 3 days of soaring. Can anyone in that region give me their best
forecast as to when the wave is most likely? I really want to get my Gold
and Diamond altitude badges but I can only afford about 3 days out of the
office as I'm busy getting ready for the SSA Convention. My friend arrives
on Saturday and will call me to give me his best guess on when to join him -
based on feedback from those at the gliderport. He will be there through
Friday. I guess my question is: Should I go during the early part of the
week, or the later part of the week, or does the weather look bad for the
entire week? I'd rather not take the time out of the office if the outlook
is poor.

I've done very little wave flying. What weather systems do you look for?
Here in Minnesota the cumulus soaring is great a day or 2 after a cold front
comes through, but I imagine you are looking for high winds and stable air.

Of course, I know that it is impossible to predict the wave accurately - any
advice would be appreciated.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

have found the Colorado State University Atmospheric Sciences Department
does a very good job of forecasting wave in the Boulder area. See:
http://rams.atmos.colostate.edu/realtime/00z/index.php3
Select the cross section for Grid 3 and then the E-W section 6 and then
scroll down to the "W" (vertical velosity) parameter. Anything over 2M/S is
soarable.

That said, the local WX is likely to be very cold for the next few days -
but then you are used to that. If you'd like to see local conditions at
Boulder airport see: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/ Click on "Foothills
Lab" under "Local Conditions". A webcam shows the area under the approach
to rwy 8 and will usually show lenticulars if they are present.

Bill Daniels


"Paul Remde" wrote in message
news:N%Qph.1128066$084.680978@attbi_s22...
Hi,

A good friend of mine has invited me to join him at Mile High Gliding in
Boulder, CO for about 3 days if the forecast looks good for wave. If the
forecast is good I'll fly out sometime between Sunday and Tuesday evening
for 3 days of soaring. Can anyone in that region give me their best
forecast as to when the wave is most likely? I really want to get my Gold
and Diamond altitude badges but I can only afford about 3 days out of the
office as I'm busy getting ready for the SSA Convention. My friend
arrives on Saturday and will call me to give me his best guess on when to
join him - based on feedback from those at the gliderport. He will be
there through Friday. I guess my question is: Should I go during the
early part of the week, or the later part of the week, or does the weather
look bad for the entire week? I'd rather not take the time out of the
office if the outlook is poor.

I've done very little wave flying. What weather systems do you look for?
Here in Minnesota the cumulus soaring is great a day or 2 after a cold
front comes through, but I imagine you are looking for high winds and
stable air.

Of course, I know that it is impossible to predict the wave accurately -
any advice would be appreciated.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

Hi Paul,

Here are some more useful links for wave flying at Boulder.

This one is for the local forecast:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/...entdir=routine

Not all that great. It'll show you the height of the inversion. Look
for winds out of the west, at 280 degree at about 20 knots or higher at
the 12K level. The inversion level should be between 95000 and 10500
feet. If the direction of flow is above 305 degree or below 245 the
wave will be hard to work. There should be a lee side low trough along
the Colorado-Kansas line. Mostly it's the wind blowing from the west
that counts.

It's usually best if the jet is located north of Boulder. If it's
really howling over head, it's not a lot of fun flying at Boulder,
high west winds on the ground and very ruff rotors.

Here's a great link for The Colorado Front Range, The Sierra Nevada,
The Northern Sierra Nevada, and The Andes of South America. Our Boulder
area forecast only goes out 36 hours.

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/~doyle/li...t/grndjct.html

Go to the Soaring Society of Boulder's webpage at:www.soarbouder.org
for more weather links. Check out CU's weather station on Niwot
Ridge: http://instaar.colorado.edu/tundracam/index.php. Follow the
links to the different weather stations on the ridge. Give the Tundra
cam a try. The state record, 44,100' was set by Jim Munn in his 1-34
just north of Niwot Ridge and west of the Peak to Peak Highway.

John Campbell at Mile High Gliding will help you. The guys at the SSB
are always looking for good diamond wave days, especially now that we
have been dumped on lately by the snow gods. We haven't been able to
fly for the pass two weeks, so there's a lot of pent-up soaring
demand around here.

I feel the need to go up and get knocked around in the rotor. Give me a
call if you like. My phone number is in your customer base or just drop
me a note. I'll get back to you.

Gunnar

Hi Gunnar,

Thanks for all the good information. Please let me know if the forecast for
wave looks good at any time this week.

Thanks,

Paul Remde

"Gunnar" wrote in message
oups.com...


Hi Paul,

Here are some more useful links for wave flying at Boulder.

This one is for the local forecast:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/...entdir=routine

Not all that great. It'll show you the height of the inversion. Look
for winds out of the west, at 280 degree at about 20 knots or higher at
the 12K level. The inversion level should be between 95000 and 10500
feet. If the direction of flow is above 305 degree or below 245 the
wave will be hard to work. There should be a lee side low trough along
the Colorado-Kansas line. Mostly it's the wind blowing from the west
that counts.

It's usually best if the jet is located north of Boulder. If it's
really howling over head, it's not a lot of fun flying at Boulder,
high west winds on the ground and very ruff rotors.

Here's a great link for The Colorado Front Range, The Sierra Nevada,
The Northern Sierra Nevada, and The Andes of South America. Our Boulder
area forecast only goes out 36 hours.

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/~doyle/li...t/grndjct.html

Go to the Soaring Society of Boulder's webpage at:www.soarbouder.org
for more weather links. Check out CU's weather station on Niwot
Ridge: http://instaar.colorado.edu/tundracam/index.php. Follow the
links to the different weather stations on the ridge. Give the Tundra
cam a try. The state record, 44,100' was set by Jim Munn in his 1-34
just north of Niwot Ridge and west of the Peak to Peak Highway.

John Campbell at Mile High Gliding will help you. The guys at the SSB
are always looking for good diamond wave days, especially now that we
have been dumped on lately by the snow gods. We haven't been able to
fly for the pass two weeks, so there's a lot of pent-up soaring
demand around here.

I feel the need to go up and get knocked around in the rotor. Give me a
call if you like. My phone number is in your customer base or just drop
me a note. I'll get back to you.

Gunnar

Bitter, bitter cold for most of the week unfortunately.
-20F forecast for mountain areas the next few nights

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Bitter, bitter cold for most of the week unfortunately.
-20F forecast for mountain areas the next few nights

The upside is the cold may kill off the pine beetles.

Frank

Hi Paul,

I haven't seen the runway at Boulder since before the first snow
storm two weeks ago. Just driving around Denver has been a pain. The
pictures I've seen show too much snow for the towplanes on 08L-26R, the
glider strip. It might be a week or so before it's usable. Looks like
more snow this weekend, slap my mouth! We need that westerly wind to
do some snow eating!!!!!!

Check with the folks at Mile High Gliding, they are in the office every
day and will have a better sense of when operations will resume. Any
other SSB'ers have a prediction on when we'll be back in the air.

Gunnar

Gunnar wrote:
Hi Paul,

I haven't seen the runway at Boulder since before the first snow
storm two weeks ago. Just driving around Denver has been a pain. The
pictures I've seen show too much snow for the towplanes on 08L-26R, the
glider strip. It might be a week or so before it's usable. Looks like
more snow this weekend, slap my mouth! We need that westerly wind to
do some snow eating!!!!!!

Check with the folks at Mile High Gliding, they are in the office every
day and will have a better sense of when operations will resume. Any
other SSB'ers have a prediction on when we'll be back in the air.

Gunnar
Mile High flew a scenic Tuesday, and perhaps another day, so the runway
is just usable again, though I hear the mounds are hard, so best to
avoid them.

Frank