Coastal Lows

By | 26 January 2013

The following synoptic charts are of Coastal Lows in different positions on the coast of South Africa.

  • Coastal lows are a dominant weather feature along the South African coast.
  • Coastal lows migrate along the South African Coastline from West to East.
  • Coastal lows are characterized by a large change in weather from warm, dry and light offshore wind conditions to cooler, moist and breezy onshore weather. This is due to a combination of the clockwise airflow around the Coastal Low and its migration from west to east.
    • Ahead of the coastal low the offshore wind (from the land to the sea) is warm and dry
    • Behind the coastal low the onshore wind (from the sea to the land) is cooler and moist.

CHART 1:Coastal Low

 

CHART 2:

You can clearly see the Coastal Low off Cape Town on the satellite image below.

CoastalLow1

CoastalLow1

Category:
 
Category: