A fairly common question that we are asked almost daily in our school: KitePassion Tarifa Kiteschool is how to interpret the pages related to wind forecasts.
There are several pages where you can check the wind forecasts daily before going to your favorite spot. Specific pages such as:
They are quite reliable as far as wind forecasts and sea weather conditions are concerned. There are other generalist pages such as: www.eltiempo.es in which you can also see observe the wind conditions but in this case two weeks away.
The aspect to take into account on this page is that the wind speed appears in Km/h. However, tell you that a 1 knot is equivalent to 1.8 kilometers per hour.
Therefore, if the wind speed is 29 kms/h, you have to know that you have approximately 15 knots. This page has a high success rate.
As for the windguru, the page most used among all the specific ones by kitesurfers, you will find the speed reflected in knots, keep in mind that in the first row you will find the wind speed and just below the gust.
Take into account both aspects when you come to Tarifa with Levante, since the streak must be valued in its fair measure with strong Levante. Just below you will find the direction arrows, on the left: lift up. Right: west. If the arrow points just up: south.
And if the forecast arrow points down, we will have off shore wind. This complete page will also indicate the height and period of the waves, as well as the cloud cover and the rain. Also indicate that there are several columns.
The first is the GFS50, that is, 50 kilometers around, taking as an average all the towns at that distance.
It tells you the wind forecast for one week ahead. Indicate that the most reliable spot for the Tariff spot is the WRF3 column. Since it tells you 3 kilometers around.
If you are not attached to the windguru payment, you will have these forecast 24 hours late. Therefore, the margin of error is greater.
There is another very useful and widely used method in recent times: www.spotfav.com, this application uses cameras around the world, it has more than a hundred. In which you can see in real time, as well as the wind, the gust and all the other parameters to see if it is worth going to enjoy the best conditions.
The great advantage is that through the cameras you can see if the kiters are sailing, where and with what size of kites.
