Weather Course
This is a 4-part New Zealand weather course, delivered in Christchurch and available to attend online.
WEATHER COURSE OVERVIEW
Weather is one of our most significant hazards in the outdoors. Finding and interpreting the right information to match what you are doing recreationally can be made easy once you know what you are looking for. This course is designed to give you a better understanding of weather from how it starts (a global perspective) to why New Zealand’s weather is so changeable (a national perspective) and then understanding field signs and information to gain your local perspective.
We have taken all of this information and put it into a one-stop-shop for you, to provide you with a user-friendly course in understanding and interpreting weather.
What we find is that most people have a good idea of their favourite sites to use in forecasting and take a pragmatic approach to weather. This course is here for you to discover more about the phenomenon of weather and give useful tools and techniques to apply when you are in the field.
Come in with a wealth of knowledge or completely new to weather. The course is here to build everyone up and provide a check-in for those who would like to see how well rounded their knowledge is. Our weather course is interactive, practical and perfect for the outdoor community who are looking for relevant information in an easy to understand format.
WEATHER COURSE LOCATION
This course is broken into 4 parts. Each part is delivered in person at the New Zealand Deer Stalkers Association, North Canterbury Branch club rooms: 599 McLean’s Island Road Christchurch from 7- 9 pm on a Tuesday night. The course will run over 4 weeks from the scheduled start date.
All workshops will be hosted live (online) so if you can’t make it you’re able to join either via zoom or watch the recording at a time convenient for you.
This course is scheduled to run once each year in June.
Dates for the 2022 weather course are:
Part 1: 07, June 2022
Part 2: 14 June 2022
Part 3: 21 June 2022
Part 4: 28 June 2022
The next occurrence of this course will be in June 2023, the dates for the 2023 course are TBC.
Private training and custom weather training courses can be organised at any time of year on request.
GEAR & EQUIPMENT
What gear will I need? Just a notebook and pen.
We will have resources and a takeaway handbook that covers all of the information in the course.
LIVE OUT OF TOWN BUT WANT TO JOIN?
We appreciate that this is a course that many people may like to be a part of, but can’t make due to travel constraints. This course can be attended online via a zoom link to join in our live workshop so you can ask your questions in real-time and be a part of our class. You may also watch the lesson at a later time via downloadable a zoom recording if you’re not available when the season is taking place.
WHEN IS THE NEXT COURSE?
Weather courses run once a year in June and are also a part of our 7-day bushcraft course. Visit our Course Calendar for scheduled course dates. Custom courses and private training can be arranged on alternative dates by request.
VISIT COURSE CALENDAR
PRICE: $149.00*
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*Advertised price is the early bird price, the standard price is available on the course calendar.
WEATHER COURSE INCLUDES
Global Weather
- Where it all starts
- Cells and trade winds
- Coriolis effect
- Air pressure measurements
- El Nino / La Nina
Weather dynamics
- Wind
- Anabatic/katabatic winds
- Temperature
- Free Air Freezing Level
- Temperature Inversions
- Air
- Humidity
- Precipitation
- Cloud Coverage
Ways of Lifting Air
- Convection
- Orographic
- Frontal lifting
- Convergent lifting
Synoptic Charts and Forecasting
- Reading synoptic charts
- Using metadata charts
- Collating data from various models and interpreting the information
- Reliability vs variability
- Understanding Weather systems
- High pressure (local influences)
- Low Pressure (local Influences)
The Four Fronts
- Frontal systems
- Cold front
- Warm fronts
- Occluded fronts
- Stationary fronts
- Troughs
- Ridges
- Timeframes for weather travel
Weather in New Zealand
- New Zealand Climate
- Forecasting sites
- Forecasting models
- What does it all mean?
Field observations – “Nowcast vs Forecast”
- Cloud identification
- Finding wind direction
- Predicting wind speed
- Understanding air temperature and FAFL (free air freezing level)
- Predicting field changes
VISIT COURSE CALENDAR
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