Squamish / Howe Sound
A day of modelled wind
Wind at nominally 10 m above model terrain. These fields are unvalidated wind diagnostics, not pollutant concentrations.
Preparing the wind fields and model terrain.
Motion is sped up to show the wind pattern. Streaks are not parcel or plume trajectories.
About these fields and how to read the map
CALMET processed retained WRF fields on a 200 m grid. The three cases compare terrain adjustments off, and terrain processing with 5 km or 10 km search radii. Selecting a case changes the saved wind field, not the terrain map.
Every step is one saved interval on 1 June 2023 in fixed PST (UTC−8). June civil time in Squamish is PDT, one hour later. Native horizontal-wind forcing targets the interval endpoint; the processed field is not a guaranteed hourly mean or instantaneous observation. Speed colours use the containing model cell. Display streaks use interpolation within the saved grid and accelerated motion.
The terrain background comes from the model’s saved terrain and water classes. No wind or terrain is invented outside the supplied domain. The dashed rectangle marks the earlier, smaller study area. Place labels are reference points, not neighbourhood averages or breathing-height exposure receptors.
Wind values follow the exercised CALMET component convention, with its local Cartesian approximation for the UTM grid. The airport comparison is one surface station; it does not validate winds across the airshed.
Keyboard: use the timeline’s arrow keys to choose an hour. Focus the map and use arrow keys to inspect neighbouring cells; Shift moves five cells. Reduced-motion preferences start the map with static arrows, and playback always starts paused.