Is spring springing? – Cambridge Gliding Centre

Yesterday someone posted this on one of our gliding club chat groups:

Everyone got very excited:

But why? What does this mean?

It might (might) mean that gliding season is arriving. In the winter, glider flights tend to be short, at least around Cambridge. We don’t have a lot of mountains, so we’re reliant on the heat of the sun warming the ground to cause bubbles of air to rise up. We hitch a lift, keeping ourselves in the sky. In the winter, the sun isn’t strong enough.

The image above is a forecast for thermal strength in the middle of next week – and it’s just starting to come alive. (Of course, like everyone else, we’ll have to dodge the rain showers.)

You can find this forecast at RASP – select “Star rating” from the pop-up menu. Hopefully we’ll see some yellows and oranges in the coming weeks!