Bigburner Call out Wind, Thermals, topography

[live2hunt]

This is the moment I realized I know absolutely nothing about wind and thermals. I am going to have to read this a few times. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

[Primetime]

Thank you for taking the time to put this together and thanks for explaining the terminology. I think there are probably some old threads on wind thermals too i could look back on that would make more sense bc of this.

[oldrank]

Very good. Thank you.

[PAbowhunter10]

Thanks Bigburner! As an electrical engineer, I can see there are two major similarities between wind/thermals and electricity. You can't see it which makes it 100x more challenging to understand, and can be very unpredictable at times. You have helped me get a better grasp on trying to understand wind for my hunting setups, and for that I thank you!

[matt1336]

Oh man....that reminded me of my stats class in college.
I’m going to have to go over that again.
Thanks burner that’s a ton of useful info

[seazofcheeze]

I'm going to have Bigburner on a episode of my podcast in the near future. If anyone has follow-up questions based on Bigburner's post, drop them in this thread, and we will try to address as many as possible during that episode.

[sojourner]

Thanks Bigburner.

I have one area that that perplexes me with wind. Say there is a generally East / West powerline. Both sides are swampy with some rise in elevation to the north. If wind is predicted as west, when I drop milkweed while on the powerline, the milkweed steadily floats East. It when I get just inside the woods to the north or south, the wind is not stable in its direction or “speed” (how fast and where it moves the milkweed). Then getting further into the woods (away from the powerline) it does not behave as erratic.

I am guessing it is tied to topography and the absence of canopy on the power line, but just don’t know how to crack this nut.

Can you shed some light on topography with regard to power lines / gas lines in the woods?

Thank you.

[greenhorndave]

For Seaz:

Knowing what you know about wind/thermals, what features do you most look for when cyber-scouting new ground, why, and how would you hunt it?

[Bigburner]

Thanks Bigburner.

I have one area that that perplexes me with wind. Say there is a generally East / West powerline. Both sides are swampy with some rise in elevation to the north. If wind is predicted as west, when I drop milkweed while on the powerline, the milkweed steadily floats East. It when I get just inside the woods to the north or south, the wind is not stable in its direction or “speed” (how fast and where it moves the milkweed). Then getting further into the woods (away from the powerline) it does not behave as erratic.

I am guessing it is tied to topography and the absence of canopy on the power line, but just don’t know how to crack this nut.

Can you shed some light on topography with regard to power lines / gas lines in the woods?

Thank you.

Hi sojourner. Good question. So one thing that first pops out to me is the fact that whatever wind is passing down that power line especially if it is aligned, its getting compressed. Read up on a topic called Venturi effect. This happens in a lot of cases. one physical feature would be your power line. Another one i can think of would be a saddle in a ridge line where the wind is passing between the two peaks. Also, it doesn't just occur when passing between vertically situated objects. The wind can become compressed and pick up speed on a horizontal plane when it encounters a rise or slope as well. In your case, when the wind is passing down the power line, it goes from high pressure to low pressure and as it gets compressed it increases in speed. And the closer you get to the power line, the tree line is causing turbulence from the friction of the wind being passed through and across an uneven vertical surface. it is rolling out to the sides in that zone and causing all sorts of swirls in the form of eddies and once you get far enough into the woods that effect dissipates. So, for you being in that zone, since its a static physical barrier I don't know what you can do to combat that. You know that tendency exists. Its just tough spot and some spots may only be right on certain times. If you where finding bedding in there I could see why a buck would like it because he could situate his bed to capitalize on those characteristics and be out of there before you even had an inkling that he was around. One thing I will preface with all the info. Milkweed is your friend. The most honest friend you'll ever hunt with

[PaPublicLandHunter]

Thank you Bigburner!

A lot of information here and I will definitely have to reread this many times. I’m looking forward to the podcast with seaz coming up

[Halon32Slayer]

Thanks BigBurner!

Great info here, and very well written. After reading this I realized the property I primarily hunt is definitely going to be effected by thermals more than I originally realized. There is a small creek down in a steep banked bottom that I frequently hunt near due to the proximity to the known bedding area. My question is, when your scent is pulled down toward the water during the thermal switch will the steep edges of the creek bed (approx 5-10 ft tall) channel scent down the creek, or will the scent hang right where it drops toward the water, or could it shoot straight up out of the bottom due to the thermal rise? I'm sure wind direction plays a huge part in this question, but basically, will a steep creek bottom act as an air channel in a sense? Could the path of the creek potentially be sending air directly toward the bedding? I'm obviously going to test this theory with some milkweed.

Thanks man!

[Jussbowz]

Thank you for putting this together. I am now going to have to read this several more times.

[Motivated]

Great information! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Another question for the podcast might be, "how do you like to hunt in light and variable winds?"

Or days with a big swing in wind direction.

[mheichelbech]

I'm going to have Bigburner on a episode of my podcast in the near future. If anyone has follow-up questions based on Bigburner's post, drop them in this thread, and we will try to address as many as possible during that episode.

Awesome writeup BB! Look forward to the podcast. A question I have is, is there a predictable impact of what happens when you have the wind blowing across a field/pasture into a woodlot. What happens with the air/wind as it hits the woods edge and as it blows through the woods? I have seen times when the milkweed blows the opposite way back into the wind which I assume is the wind hitting the trees and making an eddy effect but I’ve also seen times when the milkweed blowed with the wind and I’m not sure why it did that. Maybe wind velocity and thermals?!

[stash59]

Wow!! Good stuff. Gonna take multiple reads and more experience to really grasp all of this.

Thank you so much Bigburner. And thanx Lou for the call out!! Can't wait seaz!