Southern Microlight Club of Victoria
Sheer Lunacy - by Steve Bell
An observation put to me recently was that weather conditions can often be very settled for a few days in succession at or around the time of the full moon, and if you are going to set a date for a cross country trip your chances of getting good flying weather are better at or around this time each month.
And wouldn’t you know it!, in this past week we have had 8 consecutive days of high pressure and relatively calm conditions which just happened to coincide with the full moon on 26th July.
Spooky huh!
So having far too much time on my hands I decided to do a little googling on this and see what I could learn.
So we know that the Moon directly influences our ocean tides, but this happens every day of the year not just at the time of the full moon. The pull of the Moon, exerted with greater intensity on the side of the Earth facing it than on the side opposite, produces two humps of water, and any given spot on Earth turns through these humps at half-day intervals. What's more, these humps of water grow higher or lower as the Moon's phases change. The phases change as the position of the Moon with respect to the Sun changes, and when the Sun is pulling in a direction parallel to that of the Moon (at full Moon or new Moon), the humps are highest. When the Sun is pulling in a direction at right angles to that of the Moon (at either half Moon), the humps are lowest.
So the Moon affects our tides and the Sun’s effect on both the moon and the Earth also plays a part. I could not find any evidence that suggests the tides actually influence our weather but there is lots suggesting that our weather can influence the tides.
However there is also a sugguestion that the new moon offers us some shelter from Solar winds.
Solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. These charged particles are said to be the driving force behind comets, evidenced by the fact that comet plasma tails always point away from the sun, Solar wind is also responsible for geomagnetic storms and the aurorae (northern & southern lights).
In the 1950s, a German scientist named Ludwig Biermann became interested in the fact that no matter whether a comet is headed towards or away from the Sun, its tail always points away from the Sun. Biermann postulated (like that word) that this happens because the Sun emits a steady stream of particles that pushes the comet's tail away.
The Earth’s magentic field (magnetosphere) deflects a lot of these particles but our poor old moon has no atmosphere or intrinsic magnetic field, and consequently its surface is bombarded with the full solar wind and so when our moon is full or near full it attracts and catches much more of these particles. Unproven theories sugguest that the full moon attracts more particles away from us and therefore offers us increased protection from solar winds and therefore provides us with a potential for calmer weather through this part of the lunar cycle. Sound like Lunacy?
I hope you are impressed with my research thus far?
It is now appropriate for us at the Southern Microlight Club to offer worlds first research on this for the benefit of trike pilots and cross country flight planning. I have recorded the full moon dates and will monitor the weather conditions for the week around this monthly date and test this theory over a 12 month period and provide ongoing monthly reporting as an update to this article.
Full moon dates Weather Pattern
July 26 2010 High pressure & calm conditions from 21st July to 29th July
Aug 25 2010 Sunday's on either side good but the rest of the week was wet and windy
Sep 24 2010 Relatively calm conditions all week
Oct 23 2010 Good flying everyday all week
Nov 22 2010 Great conditions in the week leading up
Dec 22 2010 The week before was rain and wind but the week after mostly good
Jan 20 2011 In a month of devastating floods, conditions around the full moon were calm and very flyable.
Feb 19 2011 Wind for the first 2 days of our trip but then great weather for flying
Mar 20 2011 Oops I forgot to take note this month
18 Apr 2011
18 May 2011
16 June 2011
An observation put to me recently was that weather conditions can often be very settled for a few days in succession at or around the time of the full moon, and if you are going to set a date for a cross country trip your chances of getting good flying weather are better at or around this time each month.
And wouldn’t you know it!, in this past week we have had 8 consecutive days of high pressure and relatively calm conditions which just happened to coincide with the full moon on 26th July.
Spooky huh!
So having far too much time on my hands I decided to do a little googling on this and see what I could learn.
So we know that the Moon directly influences our ocean tides, but this happens every day of the year not just at the time of the full moon. The pull of the Moon, exerted with greater intensity on the side of the Earth facing it than on the side opposite, produces two humps of water, and any given spot on Earth turns through these humps at half-day intervals. What's more, these humps of water grow higher or lower as the Moon's phases change. The phases change as the position of the Moon with respect to the Sun changes, and when the Sun is pulling in a direction parallel to that of the Moon (at full Moon or new Moon), the humps are highest. When the Sun is pulling in a direction at right angles to that of the Moon (at either half Moon), the humps are lowest.
So the Moon affects our tides and the Sun’s effect on both the moon and the Earth also plays a part. I could not find any evidence that suggests the tides actually influence our weather but there is lots suggesting that our weather can influence the tides.
However there is also a sugguestion that the new moon offers us some shelter from Solar winds.
Solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. These charged particles are said to be the driving force behind comets, evidenced by the fact that comet plasma tails always point away from the sun, Solar wind is also responsible for geomagnetic storms and the aurorae (northern & southern lights).
In the 1950s, a German scientist named Ludwig Biermann became interested in the fact that no matter whether a comet is headed towards or away from the Sun, its tail always points away from the Sun. Biermann postulated (like that word) that this happens because the Sun emits a steady stream of particles that pushes the comet's tail away.
The Earth’s magentic field (magnetosphere) deflects a lot of these particles but our poor old moon has no atmosphere or intrinsic magnetic field, and consequently its surface is bombarded with the full solar wind and so when our moon is full or near full it attracts and catches much more of these particles. Unproven theories sugguest that the full moon attracts more particles away from us and therefore offers us increased protection from solar winds and therefore provides us with a potential for calmer weather through this part of the lunar cycle. Sound like Lunacy?
I hope you are impressed with my research thus far?
It is now appropriate for us at the Southern Microlight Club to offer worlds first research on this for the benefit of trike pilots and cross country flight planning. I have recorded the full moon dates and will monitor the weather conditions for the week around this monthly date and test this theory over a 12 month period and provide ongoing monthly reporting as an update to this article.
Full moon dates Weather Pattern
July 26 2010 High pressure & calm conditions from 21st July to 29th July
Aug 25 2010 Sunday's on either side good but the rest of the week was wet and windy
Sep 24 2010 Relatively calm conditions all week
Oct 23 2010 Good flying everyday all week
Nov 22 2010 Great conditions in the week leading up
Dec 22 2010 The week before was rain and wind but the week after mostly good
Jan 20 2011 In a month of devastating floods, conditions around the full moon were calm and very flyable.
Feb 19 2011 Wind for the first 2 days of our trip but then great weather for flying
Mar 20 2011 Oops I forgot to take note this month
18 Apr 2011
18 May 2011
16 June 2011