Crosswind

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A crosswind is any wind that is blowing perpendicular to a line of travel, or perpendicular to a direction. For example, in aviation, a crosswind is the component of wind which is blowing 90 degrees to the runway, making a landing more difficult than if the wind were blowing straight down the runway. In fact if a crosswind is strong enough it may exceed an aircraft's crosswind limit, and attempting to land under such conditions could cause structural damage to the aircraft's undercarriage.

Crosswinds can also occur when traveling on road, especially on large bridges and highways, which can be dangerous for motorists because of possible lift force created. The safest way for motorists to deal with crosswinds is by reducing their speed to reduce the effect of lift force and steering into the direction of the crosswind.

Crosswind is sometimes abbreviated X/WIND.

[edit] Computing the Crosswind Component

When a wind is blowing neither perpendicular nor directly parallel to your direction of travel, basic trigonometric functions can be used to determine the effective wind which is acting directly across your direction of travel (the crosswind component).

Assume:

   A=Angle of the wind from the direction of travel
   WS=The measured total wind speed
   CW=Crosswind

Then

   CW=Sin(A)*WS

For example, if a 25 knot wind (WS) is blowing at an angle of 40 degrees (A) from your direction of travel then the crosswind component is Sin(40 degrees)*25 knots = 16.1 knots. (If you are doing this computation yourself make sure you are working consistently in either degrees or radians.)

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