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Posted by Nikos Away from the inner band region, the prevailing winds have a greater influence in the local wind direction thus the method is less applicable(more geostrophic meaning the flow is more curved towards the center of low pressure or almost parallel to the isobars).
on November 17, 2010, 9:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Weather enthusiasts"
114.108.222.208 | Message modified by user NikosPenaranda November 17, 2010, 9:56 pm
hi richard,
"veering" and "backing" pertain to the azimuthal change (pertains to compass directions) in direction of the wind relative to a stationary observer. Veering(backing) means that the wind direction changes in a clockwise (counter-clockwise) manner. The term is used throughout meteorology and not exclusive to typhoons.
Simple Example #1:
The wind is coming from the West now and then you checked it after a few hours and found that the wind is now coming from NW. We can say that the wind direction has has "veered" (from W to NW)since the last observation. If it had shifted from W to SW then we say that the wind has "backed".
"Veering and backing" information may be useful when we roughly determine our location relative to the eye of a typhoon. This is especially evident when you're located within the "innerband" and "core" region of the typhoon (maybe under signal #2 or #3)where you have cyclostrophic or gradient flow (the flow of the wind is more direct towards the eye or almost perpendicular to the isobars). Well at least this is what I do (before I learned about satellite gizmos) but of course it's not very accurate. Note that this is not a standard method.
Simple Example #2:
scenario: You are under typhoon signal #2.
Current Wind direction: (from) NW, moderate winds (eye is approaching from SE)
Wind direction after 3 hours: W,strongest winds (eye is closest to the E of your location)
Next 3 hrs: SW, winds decreased (Eye is approx. NE)
Next 3 hours: SSW, winds have significantly decreased (eye is moving further away)
Analysis: Wind direction has been backing the past 9 hours. The center of the typhoon has transited (passing) approximately North of your location. The typhoon is approx. moving in the WNW direction.
hope this is helpful.
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