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What does a $10 million racing yacht do when there is no wind? The picture above says it all. The America's Cup is the oldest trophy in professional sport, and the first round of competition leading up to the America's Cup competition got underway in Valencia, Spain in April 2007. Eleven teams from around the world are competing in fabulously expensive custom-built yachts for the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the winner earning the right to challenge the Swiss syndicate and current America's Cup holder, Alinghi, for possession of the Cup later this summer. However, when the gun was supposed to go off on the first Vuitton Cup races, there was no wind to be found anywhere on the racecourse. Indeed, of the first 8 days of scheduled racing, only 2 days had sufficient wind.

The map of the April sea level pressure anomaly shows that unusually high pressure was located over central Europe. The New York Times reported on April 30 that in Germany the month of April was the hottest, driest, and sunniest April in over 100 years; stoking fears that the unusual weather might be the early signs of another European summer of sustained heat waves. Along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, an anomalous pressure gradient aligned parallel to the coastline was perfectly oriented to foil the formation of the normally consistent sea breezes upon which the America's Cup organizers were depending. They claim the historical data shows that sufficient wind to race is present offshore of Valencia 80 to 90 percent of the time during the April to June period. In April 2007 it was only about 50 percent. Residents of central Europe may be hoping that idle sailors on mega-yachts are the only ones suffering from the effects of anomalous weather this summer.

Photo credit: 2007 William Wallace for BYM News.

(submitted by Eric Wilcox)