High wind over fog?

[marky153]

The last 3 days have been foggy, with no ground wind at all. When I fly mavic at 300 feet I get high wind warning. I thought it was just over cautious firmware, but when I travelled against wind at 300 feet it only does 9 mph which indicates strong wind.
I'm mystified why at ground level there is no wind at all?
Even UAV app states low wind.


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[marky153]

Just check healthy drones states 18 mph.

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[IcySparks]

In my mind, I visualize a stream bed. The water in the stream is moving fast however if you look closely, down towards the bottom, you can see little minnows in small depressions in the stream floor. Our drones are doing the same thing. Trees, slight elevation changes, structures all change the stream of moving air above our heads. You can open Google Earth and exaggerate the elevation and start to see it too.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Yep, it's called decoupling and it usually occurs at night or early morning. The cool air will settle near the ground and condense into fog and the air above will keep moving.

Icy Sparks pretty much nailed it.

 

[SwissJim]

Having studied meteorology... this is a common and verifiable condition. Nothing unusual that I can see from your info.


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[marky153]

Thanks for all your replies, makes sense now.


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[4wd]

We are at about 700 feet and it has been windy and sunny but just over the hill and lower down they have been shrouded in fog the last couple of days.
Not hard to imagine that above that foggy layer it must be at least rather windy.
Definitely mainly a winter thing but can persist for days sometimes.

 

[m0j0]

18 is significant. I wouldn't fly in it. If I did I would stay close to the deck.


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[halley]

Though this probably isn't useful at the small-regional level, I find this handy to see when the next hurricane/typhoon might be building. Observe how the strength of the wind diminishes greatly over the rockies and the ocean shoreline.

earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions