Grandfather Mountain Mile High Swinging Bridge Wind Speed Data Online

Data collected from the weather monitoring equipment located on the cross-beam of the near tower on the Mile High Swinging Bridge is now online and can be viewed by the public.

The Wind Speeds page on Grandfather's website provides the highest three second and five second wind speed averages for today and yesterday. The Temperature page posts the high and low temperatures for today and yesterday.

Grandfather Mountain installed the equipment February 12 to record the high winds the Mountain often experiences more accurately. Due to questions that arose in the past year about the old wind measuring equipment, the new anemometer was attached to the Mile High Swinging Bridge to guarantee correct recordings.

The debate began after the anemometer mounted on the Grandfather Mountain Top Shop building measured a wind speed of 200 mph on January 24, 2006.

Many experts in the meteorology and climatology fields said that the 200 mph wind speed readings might be inaccurate since Grandfather’s wind gauge was located on the top of a building. They said that when the winds hit the side of the building, they could be diverted upward and forced to the top of the building. The winds would then spill over the roof and hit the with gauge at an accelerated rate, possibly inflating the wind-speed readings.

Grandfather Mountain President Crae Morton invited the experts to come up in March 2006 to make suggestions on how wind observations could be improved. The group recommended that a new wind speed meter be installed on a 10-meter tower to elevate the gauge high above the turbulence created when wind hits a solid object like a cliff or a building.

Grandfather Mountain took this information and then experimented with the different sites that were recommended to find the location that would provide accurate readings without hampering the spectacular vistas that visitors enjoy. The final decision was to attach the tower to a top crossbar of the Mile High Swinging Bridge.

Since February, the process of getting the data collected onto Grandfather Mountain’s website has been long and difficult at times. Issues with the software and electricity flared up early on and then misinformation from the thermometer and humidity gauge delayed statistics going into the database created by Kinney Baughman of the Appalachian Regional Development Institute. Grandfather’s extreme weather also played a factor when rime ice in combination with gusty winds on March 17 broke the lightening rod, blew the thermometer into the trees beneath the Bridge and put a ninety-degree bend in the metal rod supporting the wind gauge.

All of the needed repairs were made to the equipment and it has been operating well for the past couple of months. Everyone involved in the process is very excited to go “live” with the webpage and share the information. For more information on the 51 years of weather data from Grandfather Mountain, see the interactive weather database at www.grandfather.com.

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