When is a cross-wind too strong to bike?

Hi All-

I've recently started working in Evanston so my daily commute is now straight up Clark from Uptown.  There's a weather statement for this afternoon saying gust of 35-45 mph, and it calls out issues on north to south orientated roads for high-profile vehicles.

Does anyone have any recommendations on safe biking in this kind of weather? I've only been in Chicago for a couple of years and haven't had much experience of really strong cross-winds.

My bike is hybrid so I'm not super low profile, and I have panniers on both sides of my rear rack.  

Any thoughts/ comments/ recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kate.

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on November 8, 2018 at 8:17am

Kate, maybe you can use this site to be aware of wind conditions in Chicago. 

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=142&siteID=1...

Permalink Reply by Kate Katz on November 8, 2018 at 8:21am

Thanks Tom!

I normally use https://www.windy.com - but not sure how accurate it is this close to the lake.  Do you find iwindsurf reliable?

Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on November 8, 2018 at 9:02am

Hey Kate! Yes, it's reliable enough for letting me know if and when a high wind day is coming up. It looks like very late Friday evening and Saturday mornng winds will be strong from the west about 20 to 25mph. That other famous Tom (Skilling) is predicting a few inches of snow also, yikes! 

Permalink Reply by JimM. on November 8, 2018 at 8:38am

I use this page at Weather Underground for pretty much real-time wind conditions by the lake. I keep the page open in a browser on a second screen at work and keep an eye on the wind meter (I know there's probably a better word for the graphic showing wind speed and direction but can't think of it).

Permalink Reply by Kate Katz on November 8, 2018 at 9:05am

Thanks Jim!

Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on November 8, 2018 at 9:15am

Anemometer is the meteorological instrument for measuring wind speed Jim. :-)

Permalink Reply by JimM. on November 8, 2018 at 9:17am

Thanks Tom! Now if I could just commit the word to long-term memory which I seem to have less and less of these days :(

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