www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-25/scientists-blown-away-by-rising-wind-speeds/2643526
Wind ... Increase ? what a crock!!
I think you may find that this is referring to ocean winds, which fundamentally relates to changes in climate....which is really scary stuff. Of course, there are flow on effects at the land/ocean interface, but I'm not a marine geologist, but I am sure it has a lot to do our weather/winds. There are winds hitting the coast, and lots of it, just look at the rain and Yasi/cyclones that have happened in NQ this year! I never knew such weather when I lived in the "dry north."
Maybe the Earth is spinning faster! That would explain why I fell so dizzy, I am sure it isn't the red wine.
It is amazing how everything increases once you start measuring it.....except glaciers
i hardly see how it is BS considering the scientific community is in agreeance it's real.
i think gidget is on the money as the article does refer to climate change. the article doesn't say it's getting windier in general terms. what it says is the extremes are getting more extreme. statistically this will push up the averages wouldn't it. doesn't mean it's going to blow every day. also says wave extremes are getting higher.
anyways, i highly recommend you watch this.
www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abcnews24/201103/programs/NC5015H091D2011-03-25T220500.htm?program=Climate%20Change%20Commission%20Hearing
i watched it live today and all i can say is take notice.
it's on now on abc24 also.
To all those criticising the study, I have to ask how in the world can anyone who claims to be balanced reckon that they know the long-term change in wind patterns, unless they have been maintaining objective data, which I bet no one here has done?
Unless you have been maintaining objective data, how can you abuse a study that has used objective data? Going off memory and visions of yesterday seen through rose-coloured glasses that conjure up mistaken memories of a mythical time when it was windy every day is NOT a sufficient basis to attack someone's professional work.
One of the funny things about having started windsurfing when I was young and a long while ago is that I've seen people say 'it doesn't blow like it used to" since about 1981. It's been BS all the time as far as I can see. It's a case of rose-coloured glasses.
Not only that, I don't think I have ever heard this claim from boat sailers much - overwhelmingly it's from windsurfers where we keep on designing stuff mainly for strong winds.
How many of the people who dispute any claim about wind changes have actually obtained objective data to back them up?
How in the world can anyone logically claim that this study is "a crock" when they have not reviewed the data?
I'm sitting here looking at a book about sailing in Sydney, and it says "some years ago" there was a cycle of regular winds "but that pattern doesn't always seem to work out these days". The thing is that the boat prices in the book are written in pounds, so it was published before 1966 - in other words this complaint "the wind doesn't blow like it used to" is just an old wives tale that some people have been saying for decades.
Sorry, but to abuse someone when you have zero objective data on which to base your slagging is pretty off. I know a bunch of scientists and they are extremely careful when it comes to making claims, although the media often blow it all up.
And even if we get down to war stories, the claim that the wind is dropping doesn't add up - for example, most of the most damaging Sydney-Hobart races have been in the last couple of the race's 6 decades.
PS - one of the authors has has apparently been focussing on "wind generated ocean waves" at places like the the Max Planck Institut for Meteorologie in Germany. The other has a bunch of projects about ocean waves.
To be honest it seems pretty bloody damn arrogant to assume that these guys who have spent much of their lives working in the field don't know what they are talking about. And having talked about the subject with the BoM Extreme Weather guys, I know that they are very, very open to the idea that wave heights and winds are increasing, because there has been evidence of it for some time.
LMFAO ..... I think it's hilarious how seriously some people take post on the forum,
Everyone has an opinion, some right dome wrong and some plain crazy.... But I was reading the news, saw the article and figured it would provide some amusement for those of us that have wasted days(weeks) thus summer waiting for a gust above 12 knots
That is all.
It's funny when I hear people saying stuff like it's not blowing like when I used to be young.
Perhaps its because you were less of a lard arse when you were young?
Only speaking from my own experience ;-)
You are all correct. Stop arguing 
The extremes are getting more extreme, that is why we have less regular 20kn blows which makes windsurfers whine, but we also have damaging storms in the Syd-Hobart and cyclones up north. Stronger and maybe more frequent big blows that are unsuitable for wind sports, but less of what we call a good day on the water.
i just like to add mark that i like big blows
keep it out of the gutter..... i mean 50 knots
but I was referring to the 90kn 
23 years!
A long term study hey, I would of thought a long term study in the history of climate change of the earth would be a least 500 years.
Don't worry Dr J. there are more like you and me that don't have our heads stuck up our white jackets.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/General-Discussion/Chat/Wind-speeds-and-wave-heights-increasing/
Yeah, Wormy, because we should never listen to those white jacket guys who created things like modern medicine, GPS, monofilm, carbon, the wind reports on Seabreeze, the computers and internet we're communicating with, and even widestyle boards..
It seems a bit odd to use the work of the "white jacket guys" every day and then diss them about it.
I think that it is a good thing that someone, somewhere, is doing some objective study of the subject.....I can only see positive things coming out of it.
we should always listen and trust the white jacket guys,after all they are the one's behind the SF in the tap water.
drink up and you will continue to believe what we are told.
If the report is objective and the scientists only report what they have measured then there is no problem. When the report is "sexed" up by describing how cyclones will wipe out Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and how massive waves will wipe out coastal cities then there is a problem.
The same exact issue of 'sexing' up and extrapolating of data is exactly what is causing all this cynicism towards the idea of human induced climate change.
Dr J exactly what size grenade did you use??
To present a fair and balanced argument in the media is unlikely in most cases as each media outlet is driven by its own agenda and its own bottom line.
My take on it all is yes, there is climate change occurring, no i don't believe it is mankind influenced (enough to bring on doomsday) and that there are also many "white coats" disputing the mankind influenced climate change theory.
If we always believed men of science, the world would still be flat and the Earth was the center of the universe.
Some things get disputed and disproved from mainstream thinking.
We'll have an iceage if 3 or 4 volcanoes erupt massively at the same time. 
Petermac, are you trying to tell us that a company that makes water distillers doesn't have a commercial motive in trying to tell us that flouride is bad?
Irrespective of whether or not flouride is bad - and it's something I've never really gone into although I'm aware of some of the issues - surely we can't be expected to just believe a company that makes money from us believing it's bad, nor can we expect to just believe Today Tonight which also has a profit motive from scaring people.
Wayne, about "If we always believed men of science, the world would still be flat and the Earth was the center of the universe. Some things get disputed and disproved from mainstream thinking."
It was scientists and mathematicians who are credited with exploding the flat-earth theory by going out an measuring the angle of the sun at noon in various areas. It was scientists and mathematicians who exploded the earth-centric model by actually measuring the motion of the planets.
.
Science exploded those false theories - it didn't create them.
No one here is saying that science is always right - but it's pretty damn reasonable and logical to trust the guys who brought us flight (contrary to rumours, the Wright Brothers had a very scientific approach and relied on the best science of their time), carbon, mylar, yada yada yada.
It doesn't even have to be belief in science - it can simply be acknowledging that people who spend their lives working in any field will normally know more about that field than those of us who don't.
Dispute it all you will but "the men in the know" said the earth was flat etc.
Not dumb at all thanks barn. You may be a sheep and accept the common thinking.
Your choice.
Only takes 1 person to disprove/prove something.
Heard of Einstein ?
That the overall temp is changing, and whether man is responsible for it or not, are two different questions.
I like to see how quick people go from one to the other, in order to push the agenda: let's not do anything, surely it's not us, let's not change our processes. The head a bit deeper in the sand, please.
There are wayyyy too many studies to the effect that the overall temp is changing the last 50-100 years. I believe this is now undisputed. It was questioned 10-20 years ago (it seems by entities that could lose from changing the way we f**k the planet). But now it's game over. Another study just yesterday from the 45th north, with TONS of precise data from all over north America, and it was +1.4C, over 60 years. Now this doesn't say exactly 1.4 across the board, it said on the average, with a few places only .5, and others (mostly further north) at +2. With more variability than before.
Now, I'm not a scientist, but it seems impossible that such a drastic change, whether man-helped or not, would not have an impact on overall wind patterns. Just plain impossible. Temp and variability are two major factors that drive (no pun) wind patterns.
And I don't care about what others say: in the early-mid 80s on summer months, when I was young and we'd feel like cruising and sailing at Balmoral, we wouldn't wonder about the wind. It was gonna be NE and on-shore, unless a S-change. The mates would come from far away, because they were never be upset about the wind - I know that for a fact, 'coz there were whingers, and I'd remember. We'd sail on a NEer, that's all no questions asked (and perhaps a bit of perv, as we was young and immature).
There are a lots of non-NE now, even in the midst of summer. I don't go there anymore - I'm too old 
