More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

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More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby weatherdude » Fri Feb 23, 2018 8:44 pm

https://huntthefront.blog/2018/02/23/mo ... iscussion/

In this blog I talk more about thermals and how characteristics of solar radiation will affect thermals in different locations. It's not a "revelation" or anything but I had some thoughts in my radiation class recently about how these things affect how we hunt. Imagine that, studying atmospheric science all the while pondering how I can apply it to hunting :lol: . Nothing new for me.


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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby Rob loper » Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:45 pm

Cool stuff but makes total sense. Things you just dont realize or even know what s going on
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Sat Feb 24, 2018 2:36 am

8-)
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Feb 24, 2018 3:42 am

Albedo - I learned a new word thanks 8-)
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby mheichelbech » Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:10 am

Interesting to think about and raises other questions for me:

1) What would be the impact of brown leaves?

2) Do different colored leaves effect thermals?

3) In the field or woods does it make a noticeable difference...color of the ground that is or is typically overridden by primary factors such as air temp and wind flow?

4) Is there any situation you can think of where this would impact your hunting tactics..namely stand location? Water of course does but I’m talking ground or what’s covering it?
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby weatherdude » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:07 am

mheichelbech wrote:Interesting to think about and raises other questions for me:

1) What would be the impact of brown leaves?

2) Do different colored leaves effect thermals?

3) In the field or woods does it make a noticeable difference...color of the ground that is or is typically overridden by primary factors such as air temp and wind flow?

4) Is there any situation you can think of where this would impact your hunting tactics..namely stand location? Water of course does but I’m talking ground or what’s covering it?


These are the same questions I have! I think the albedo effect is going to be most pronounced in the morning just like most thermal effects. However it obviously still applies throughout the day. There's a handful of situations I can think of where there might be a noticeable effect. 1) on the edge of a tilled field with dark dirt 2) in a river bottom without much grass around it 3) large trails or logging roads with a lot of the dark dirt exposed.

With leaves its tough to say how noticeable the effect would be. I would think it would be noticeable over bare dirt but you can't say for sure without doing an experiment to prove it! One way to test would be to go out on a calm day and drop milkweed from a stand over a leaf covered ground and then a larger area of bare dirt. The milkweed over dirt would probably go farther.

These are just a few of my guesses. I would venture to say that I can bet in situations 1 & 2 you could find deer traveling at the intersection between the dirt and adjacent grass if there were not a better travel route. Maybe in situation 3 too. At this intersection you would have a sort of "thermal tunnel" that you sometimes see people talk about. I often find heavy trails running next to large creeks on the public land I hunt on, I wouldn't be surprised if they are taking advantage of the "over-turning" type effect you would get from rising air on the banks and sinking air over the water.

Like I said though I'm just guessing; I really have no idea if these things are something we should pay a lot of attention to or not. I think I'll be more diligent about bringing my notebook into the field this year and paying more attention to this subject in particular.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby Dan T » Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:30 am

This effect allowed me to arrow one of my bucks late season this year. I was hunting a friends farm which is mostly ag with hedge rows. Most of the timber and bedding was to the east and the north. I didn't have a ton of time, I observed from a distance for the first few days. The deer were hitting this small patch of beans along a hedge row that the combine missed, they would go right to it every night and already be there in the am, every morning most of the deer exited NE into the timber and on three out of four days the largest buck would just go to the end of the hedge row and bed in a small island of trees in the middle of the field where the hedge row/fence line ended. There was nothing but south and east oriented winds in the forecast. I was waiting for a N or NE wind to make my move, it seemed impossible otherwise. East and SE winds were totally out of the question. By day four I was itching to hunt bad, the buck did not bed there the morning before or come out that night, but he was there this morning and bedded in the fence line again.it was -7 with 20mph wind out of the S, otherwise a beautiful day an not a cloud in the sky. I knew S the wind was bad for the set up as the spot the deer were feeding would be 5-30yards directly to my north. I went anyway and hoped the strong winds would send my sent over the area the deer were feeding and not spook any deer I may pass on. The field had a strong crest to it, I made my way down the fence line nice and low and made it between the buck and where he had been feeding in the evening. I got up as high as I could and started dropping some milkweed. It was landing right in the center of where the deer where expected to feed and pass. I noticed that the milkweed would dump right down into the standing beans, stop just above the ground continue north, and once it got clear of the standing crop area where a dark green grass was starting to grow, the milk weed would start to lift. Being a treeclimber for a living, I had the right gear, so I started to climb up to the very top of the oak I was in. I got about 15ft higher than I was previously and started dropping milkweed again. This time not only was the milkweed clearing the light colored beans with the wind, as soon as it cleared the standing crop and got over the cut portion it rose and rose until it was out of sight. Long story shorter, I had 13 deer come by me that night from 5-30 yards and I killed the biggest buck out of them. After I shot I also observed six deer come out into the field directly "down wind" of me about 100yards aways, and never knew I was there, the field had a slope to it too and those 100 yard deer were more or less eye level with me. I could see where someone wearing scent lock or using ozonics would think they had them fooled with the way the wind was seemingly blasting right at them, when in reality my scent was clearing their heads by tens or more feet. I theorized that day that it had to be the color change in the ground giving it just a slightly higher temp and a stronger thermal rise than the lighter colored vegetation directly in front of and down wind of me. I'm looking forward to playing with this concept more.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sat Feb 24, 2018 3:14 pm

mheichelbech wrote:Interesting to think about and raises other questions for me:

1) What would be the impact of brown leaves?

2) Do different colored leaves effect thermals?

3) In the field or woods does it make a noticeable difference...color of the ground that is or is typically overridden by primary factors such as air temp and wind flow?

4) Is there any situation you can think of where this would impact your hunting tactics..namely stand location? Water of course does but I’m talking ground or what’s covering it?

dark ground generates more heat think of how hot a parking lot is so dark color generate more thermal push. hears some thought rocky areas can keep thermals rising longer in evenings in the right situation. thermals are major influence on setting up first light and afternoon. deer movement is picking up right around the time you get thermal switches so a couple feet hear or there can really change the whole outcome of a hunt.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby KLEMZ » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:07 am

Thanks weatherdude, great article!
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby Babshaft » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:34 am

Awesome stuff. I think my tiny brain just exploded.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby basspro05 » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:39 am

:clap: great stuff here. It’s definetly logged into the memory bank for future observations.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Sun Feb 25, 2018 1:10 am

:clap: nice read!!
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby Bedbug » Mon Feb 26, 2018 2:34 am

Albedo scale It's nice to have a name for things like this. Great stuff weather dude.
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Re: More on thermals (a perhaps scientific but important discussion)

Unread postby NEbowman » Mon Feb 26, 2018 10:32 am

Great stuff man. Thanks for sharing!


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