Reading Hodographs

[Chris]

Ok, I attached a pic for reference.
When reading a hodograph, I have a question.  I understand the wind direction portion on the far right.... the direction of the wind as you move up through the clouds and it's speed.  But what about the rest of it.  I recall some information from the chaser convention, but to be honest, most of it went out the window.  Maybe if Roger or someone could post a better picture and explain the differences  if the lines would be great.  I think a good tutorial here would be valuable information to all, just not me.

thanks!

[rhill]

Main things to remember with a hodograph is that the center point is CALM winds. Everything goes out from there. This one you posted shows wind speeds increasing in 10 meters per second increments. Most show 14 kt range rings. It is posted from surface through the column, with the first plotted point being surface and each successive point after that a various elevation, usually in MB. Maybe surface, 950, 850, 700, 500, 250 would be plotted, each shown by a definitive point on the hodograph. In your example, every wind barb shown on the right side of the Skew T diagram is plotted on the hodograph. The directions are wierd, as they are backwards. What looks like west (left of the center point) on the hodo is in reality EAST. What looks like north is in reality SOUTH), and so on. Thus when you see a large loop in the hodograph, it signifies strong shear and the loopier the lowest level are, the more shear it has. The one you posted has westerly flow in all levels with very little low level shear and not something you would want on a chase day. The "loop" is actually backwards.

Hope that helps!

Roger

[Fla911girl]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!        SOUNDINGS AND HODOGRAPHS!!!!  

very scared when I see those!!!!  i only know enough to further confuse the crap out of me!!!!     

[T Howley]

I'm with you on this!
The hodographs I sort of understand or at least the basic principle
Skew-Ts are like those ink blot pictures to me ha ha