Weather (written by Michael Percy)
People ask “What are the best times of year for kiteboarding?”
We get wind here all year round. Not necessarily every day, but most days have enough wind to fly the kites. Develop as much kite skill as you can before trying to ride the board. The purpose is to get so comfortable with the kite that you don’t have to think about flying it.
Each season here has its pros and cons. In general, the wind is lighter in the summer (except for tropical storms and hurricanes) and stronger in the fall, winter and spring as cold fronts come through. In a way, fall, winter and spring are ‘kiteboarding season’, but summer produces a consistent sea breeze which is smooth and gentle and often perfect for learning. The water is so comfortable that summer learning is a pleasure. Each time of year has its pluses and minuses, so really, the best time to get started is as soon as you can.
Late summer can be dull or spicy depending what tropical storms and hurricanes are doing. A storm anywhere in the Gulf can shake things up and give us nice wind and waves for a week or more. A direct hit can give us too much, but without a storm somewhere there might be not enough. The typical late summer sea breeze is 10 to 12 miles per hour from the south or southwest. Because the Gulf is hot, and the land is hot, there is not much temperature difference to drive the seabreeze effect. Local thunderstorms forming inland can accentuate the seabreeze and give good riding conditions, but it is impossible to know you’ll have wind you can count on. But it does often work out.
Fall is good for kiteboarding because two wind sources are active--tropical disturbances (storms and hurricanes), and cold fronts. As tropical storms and hurricanes make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and up the east coast, a storm anywhere in the southeast can make the wind blow nicely here. Because these storms move slowly, they can give us a week of solid wind. Cold fronts provide relief from the heat, with cool dry air and stronger wind. When the front arrives, the wind can be 20 to 25 miles per hour from the northwest and north. This wind becomes lighter and less consistent as the day goes on so it is best to catch it early. A cold front will typically give at least three days of morning wind--first day from the northwest, second day from the north, and a third or fourth day from the northeast. The first cold fronts of the year typically come in late September or early October.
Winter ends the tropical activity but keeps the cold fronts coming. Cold fronts provide good solid wind, but after the front passes, there will not be wind until the next cold front comes. This pattern of cold fronts continues through January, February and March.
Spring slows down the cold fronts, but as the days begin to heat up, the sea breeze starts to work. Because the Gulf is near the low point of its temperature range, when the sun starts to bake the land in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, all that hot air rises, sucking air from the Gulf onto the land. This sea breeze effect is very reliable, and happens on every sunny day. This often gives us a 10mph breeze starting around noon, and building to 15 to 20mph as the day goes on. This smooth steady wind is really great for learning.
Early Summer: As the Gulf water warms up, the sea breeze gets less powerful, because there is less temperature difference to drive the effect. Depending how the afternoon thunderstorms build up, they can increase the seabreeze to a nice 15 or even 20 miles per hour, or kill the wind, depending where you are in relation to the inland storm. The seabreeze forms on every sunny day, but can be interrupted if the sky clouds over too quickly.
Because the sea breeze comes from the south, there is no land mass to disrupt it. This seabreeze wind is so smooth, with no gusts until it encounters obstructions on the land such as trees and buildings. And because our beach area is a low sandbar, it doesn’t cause much disturbance and the wind is still smooth when it gets to the bay side. Because it is so smooth, in light wind, you can safely fly even a big kite on the beach.