The effect of terrain on the evening wind

Plots of near-surface wind speed against screen temperature during the evening transition, originally observed at the Cardington (UK) site, have been compiled for seven other sites in Britain. It appears that the form of the plot depends significantly on the height of the surrounding terrain. Attempts to simulate the plots with a simple numerical model were initially unsuccessful due to the presence of inertial oscillations in the model. However the inclusion of terms to emulate blocking pressure fields due to neighbouring terrain and obstructions gave better agreement with the observations. © Crown Copyright 2010. Published by JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.