USING WEATHER (from John Aldrich)

In the 1970s, SOARING Magazine featured an especially informative monthly column titled USING WEATHER, by meteorologist John Aldrich.  (Dust off a stack of old issues from our library here at SCSA and you’ll be amazed how entertaining and educational SOARING was back then.)   One of Dr. Aldrich’s articles gave a way of predicting the best thermal days that’s very accurate...  and just plain common sense.   Paraphrasing Aldrich, if you have four days in a row hotter each day, then the fourth should power the strongest convection.   It’s a no-brainer.   And that’s what we have this week, culminating once again on Saturday!Also, this period may present examples of great desert heat far inland causing such massive volumes of lift that low pressure develops near the surface, drawing air in from the coast.   In between, wherever coastal or otherwise cooler winds advance on some hot interior zone alive with thermal activity (such as CRYSTAL for instance), soaring pilots can expect a strong shearline – maybe more than one…