Hunt the Average Wind

Youth Deer Season has begun and we're moving at warp speed towards the Iowa archery season!

The winds of change are upon us and hunters know, using the wind to your advantage is critical to be successful. Planning your hunting spots to account for the average wind will keep you undetected in a good spot more of the time. I call it, hunting the average wind. It looks like this autumn will be a wild roller-coaster of temperature tumbles and strong daily and weekly shifts (see Long Range Forecast for more). To figure it all out and narrow down the average/prevailing winds lets look at a plot called a Wind Rose.

A wind rose shows direction, intensity and frequency of wind.
Here are the prevailing winds on an average August in
Des Moines, Iowa. Images courtesy IEM.

Let's use August as an example and then we'll focus on the upcoming hunting season. The typical prevailing wind in Des Moines, Iowa in August is from the south and southeast. In fact, using the plot you can see a straight south wind comes in 14.1% of the time and south to southeast winds comprise roughly 45% of the month's wind direction. This is one of the reasons August is usually so hot. If there were a deer season to hunt in August, I'd be hanging my stands to the north and west of where I expect deer to move, like a watering hole.

Strangely, this August featured a strong northerly

. 

In weather, the average results from blending all the extremes and this year is anything but average!  Just compare August 2012 to the typical August. The prevailing winds seem polarized with a northerly wind almost as often as the usual southerly wind. So hunters might have to adapt and hang stands a bit differently than normal years.

October's prevailing wind for Des Moines, Iowa.

 Looking at the typical October prevailing wind in central Iowa, south/southeast winds still dominate the landscape. Northwesterly winds become a factor as systems move in from the west and drag cooler air in behind them from the north. This year will likely be different though. I expect more of our storms to 'dive' in from the north. I also anticipate stronger high pressure systems to build into the Great Lakes region behind storm systems. Under this pattern, due northerly winds will be more of a factor this October. Westerly winds will be weaker and easterly winds more frequent.

November is peak time for Iowa bowhunters to intercept a rutting buck. The typical prevailing winds are almost perfectly split between southerly winds (11.7% of the month) and northwesterly winds (11% of the month). This year however, the weather pattern will be amplified. An overactive Arctic jetstream will whip up massive Canadian storms and send them down across the Midwest. Cold air  will surge down for a few days before milder/warmer winds move in less than a week later.


Hunting the wind can dramatically improve your season's stats. This bow season expect a northerly wind (NW, N, NE) almost 1/4 of the time. This wind will come during/after storm systems. I expect a more frequent easterly component to the wind perhaps 1/6 of the time. We'll get this wind with departing storms as high pressure builds in. Finally, I still expect a warm Fall, so south/southeasterly winds are going to be common as the barometer falls before a storm. This wind will likely occur around 1/4 of the time. All the other wind directions should split up the remaining 1/3 of the time. So if you like to put the odds in your favor, I'd set up for a south wind, a north wind, and if there's any stands left over, an east wind this year.

Hope this helps, and good luck to all the young hunters on their Youth Season!