Sometimes it seems like we Brits love nothing more than a good natter about the weather – which is just as well, as there’s certainly been a lot of it about lately!
Fortunately for me, although weather is a passion of mine, I myself managed to escape some of January’s more extreme conditions in the UK (my greenhouse took a battering though!) and headed off to warmer climes.
My role as the British Sailing Team’s Meteorologist has already taken me west this winter for training and events in Rio de Janeiro – venue for the next Olympic Games in 2016 – and Miami, where our sailors had their first ISAF Sailing World Cup competition of 2014.
Whether it’s scorching heat and humidity in Rio, or untimely rainstorms and a lack of wind in Miami that we’re faced with, our sport relies so much on weather conditions, and on knowing how they will impact on competition so the sailors can best prepare – in terms of their equipment set-up, tactics and decision-making – for whatever Mother Nature decides to throw down.
Clearly to do my job you need a sound knowledge of the weather (I previously worked for the Met Office) but sailing knowledge and particularly a reasonably high standard of racing experience also help you understand what the key weather changes for a racing sailor will be.
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