Wind colors for sailors ... and for everyone.

[idefix37]

The color palette used for the wind layer can be optimized for navigation at sea.
Most sailors know and use the Beaufort scale. Each degree of this scale corresponds to a range of wind and to a sea state. Therefore it is useful to calibrate the wind color settings according to the Beaufort scale. In this way, at a glance, it is possible to know which are the areas concerned by a certain wind force.
These customised settings are based on the following considerations:

• Light winds are displayed by light colors while strong winds are shown by denser, darker colors for an intuitive approach. However beyond 64 kt i.e. 12 Bf or Hurricane force, rather than being darker, the colors become very bright « like LED lights ».
• Each wind range is displayed by an uniform color without shading or smoothing, with only a small blend transition.
• From 64 kt, colors are chosen according to degrees used by NHC (Cat.1, Cat.2...)
• Choice of colors has been mainly based on
  BLUE when conditions are too light or just enough to use sails (0Bf - 3Bf)
  GREEN when conditions are the best for sailing (4Bf - 5 Bf),
  ORANGE when conditions become tougher (6Bf),
  RED when a coastal cruising sailboat must find a shelter (7Bf - 8Bf).

HOW TO APPLY THESE COLORS

You must be logged in to upload these settings in your Windy cloud. Then these settings will be applied to all your devices including mobiles.

Go to Settings
Choose Customize color scale
Select overlay: Wind
At bottom of page click on Import/Export color to open a window.
Delete the text code in this window
Select and copy all lines of code here below and paste them in the window
Then press Import Gradient
Press Save created color

[[1.5,[134,163,171]],
[2.5,[126,152,188,256]],
[4.12,[110,143,208,256]],
[4.63,[110,143,208,256]],
[6.17,[15,147,167,256]],
[7.72,[15,147,167,256]],
[9.26,[57,163,57,256]],
[10.29,[57,163,57,256]],
[11.83,[194,134,62,256]],
[13.37,[194,134,63,256]],
[14.92,[200,66,13,256]],
[16.46,[200,66,13,256]],
[18,[210,0,50,256]],
[20.06,[215,0,50,256]],
[21.6,[175,80,136]],
[23.66,[175,80,136]],
[25.21,[117,74,147]],
[27.78,[117,74,147]],
[29.32,[68,105,141,256]],
[31.89,[68,105,141]],
[33.44,[194,251,119,256]],
[42.18,[194,251,119,256]],
[43.72,[241,255,109,256]],
[48.87,[241,255,109,256]],
[50.41,[256,256,256,256]],
[57.61,[256,256,256,256]],
[59.16,[0,256,256,256]],
[68.93,[0,256,256,256]],
[69.44,[256,37,256,256]]]

Try to use these new colors during at least one week. If you like them, keep them. If you don’t like, you can come back to the default Windy settings by pressing Load default color

If you keep them, you can use the wind speed units that you like ...kt...Bft…km/h...mph...m/s

WIND SPEEDS EASY TO IDENTIFY BY COLORS :

EXAMPLE OF WIND FIELD WITH THESE NEW COLOR SETTINGS :

[jmh2002]

Nice, interesting, thank you. Thinking about this.

[idefix37]

You may try it.
I started with the following choice of colours:
Green: the best conditions for sailing. Enjoy wind and sea.
Orange: conditions becoming tougher. Be careful
Red: hard conditions for a standard 30’ - 40’ cruising boat. Better to stay sheldered.
The result is may be not artistic but efficient.
I like to explain the Beaufort scale also with this table from F.Singleton, with a little humour :

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wea.153

[cgfbreton]

@idefix37 said in Wind colors for sailors ... and for everyone.:

[[1.5,[134,163,171]],
[2.5,[126,152,188,256]],
[4.12,[110,143,208,256]],
[4.63,[110,143,208,256]],
[6.17,[15,147,167,256]],
[7.72,[15,147,167,256]],
[9.26,[57,163,57,256]],
[10.29,[57,163,57,256]],
[11.83,[194,134,62,256]],
[13.37,[194,134,63,256]],
[14.92,[200,66,13,256]],
[16.46,[200,66,13,256]],
[18,[210,0,50,256]],
[20.06,[215,0,50,256]],
[21.6,[175,80,136]],
[23.66,[175,80,136]],
[25.21,[117,74,147]],
[27.78,[117,74,147]],
[29.32,[68,105,141,256]],
[31.89,[68,105,141]],
[33.44,[194,251,119,256]],
[42.18,[194,251,119,256]],
[43.72,[241,255,109,256]],
[48.87,[241,255,109,256]],
[50.41,[256,256,256,256]],
[57.61,[256,256,256,256]],
[59.16,[0,256,256,256]],
[68.93,[0,256,256,256]],
[69.44,[256,37,256,256]]]

Merci pour cette palette de couleur. Très parlantes en effet.
Les miennes sont déjà modifiées car j'utilise une palette plus étendue avec vingt niveaux, pour aller jusqu'à 190 noeuds. En effet en utilisant une palette étendue avec la fonction FL ( Flying Level, dans le Menu -> logo "Avion" ) on peut ainsi cartographier le vent à 850 hPa, 700 hPa, 500 hPa, ...10 hPa , et ainsi avoir une idée de la force du vent en altitude et de la position des jets, voir éventuellement des jets de basse couche . Utile pour avoir une compréhension de la masse d'air en 3D et aussi pour ceux qui font de la montagne ou du vol à voile également.

[idefix37]

@cgfbreton
Cela m’arrive aussi de regarder le courant jet vers 250 hPa ainsi que les vents à 500 hPa même si ce sont ceux qui sont au niveau des vagues qui m’intéressent avant tout.
Je regrette que Windy ne visualise pas un calque de hauteurs géopotentielles en couleur. Ces données ne sont disponibles que sous la forme d’isohypses qui sont moins parlantes. Et pourtant ce n’est pas faute de l’avoir demandé à plusieurs reprises !