Acual windmap of Greenland: In between the two high pressure cell, the on over Greenland and the other one South of Iceland a slack pressure gradient dominates over the South East coast of Greenland. In theis situation there is hardly changing anything. I am afraid the guys will have a hard and hot time to get on the ice cap. Click to get a nice image (c) ugrib

Forecast sent to Jon and Carl via Iridium phone text messages:

Day 1 - 7 May near Isortoq
Wind: calm less than 5kt, nsc (no significant change).
Wx: enlarging sunny spells, becoming sunny (and hot)
Temps: -6C later 0C

Day 2 - 8 May
Wind: NW 6-10kt soon becoming less than 5kt. nsc.
Wx: sunny with patches of higher clouds. nsc.
Temps:-4C later +1C

Day 3 - 9 May
Wind: Calm, less than 5kt. nsc.
Wx: sunny, nsc
Temps: min:-10C/max:-0C

Latest sat shot of Greenland. The continent comes out very brightly with a nice view of the frontal ystem over the South of this magnificent ‘island’. The blue arrow shows the start place of Jon and Carls traverse. (c) Canada Weather Office.

Forecast via iridium text messages

Day 1 - 6 May
Wind: calm less than 5kt, nsc (no significant change).
Wx: overcast, soon improving: sunny spells
Temps: -2C later 0C

Day 2 - 7 May
Wind: calm less than 5kt. nsc.
Wx: enlarging sunny spells, good conditions
Temps:-6C later 0C

Day 3 - 8 May
Wind: early(6utc) NW 10kt (go as far N as possible), after 12utc 4-8kt. Nxt morning 6ut:N10kt (go WNW)
Wx: sunny, later increasing cloud
Temps: min:-8C/max:-2C

Detail of the East coast of Greenland: the main settlement is called Tasiilaq. The green arrow indicates the start point of the traverse of Jon and Carl. Click to enlarge (c) Google maps

The forecast for Jon and Carl is transmitted via Iridium phone text messages. One message can hold only 160 digits so the forecast is very short and brief to get one day in one message.

Today (the 4th) they flew from Tasiilaq to  Isortoq on the icecap. From here Carl and Jon are going to kite to the west coast of Greenland. Hopefully they get some favourable winds. Howerver the first few days don’t look reall windy! Oh dear, that means man hauling….

Day 1 - 5 May
Wind: NE 4-8kt becoming calm.
Wx: overcast with sleet and rain/snow. Improving after 21/00utc.
Temps: 0°C, no change.

Day 2 - 6 May
Wind: calm, after 6/9utc NNW 3-7kt
Wx: very cloudy, improving: enlarging sunny spells
Temps: 0/+1C

Day 3 - May 7
Wind: less than 5kt later calm
Wx: sunny - good
Temps: min: -6C/max: 0C

Weather4expeditions.com is happy to support the Kite Greenland 2010 expedition. Certain teams cross Greenland from East to West others from South to North, but Jon Chalmers and Carl Alvey are going to do both!!!

First of all they snowkite from East to West, from Isortoq to Ilulissat. This is about 600km and will take about 15 to 20 days. The first part of this trip is the most difficult part: going into the katabatic wind and uphill. The second part is a joy for the snowkiter: favourable katabatics and downhill.
Secondly they go to Fjoro near Narsaq in the South and travel up to Qaanaaq in the Northwest of Greenland. 2300 km along the western side of the ice cap divide, estimated 30-50 days. This is a long but very nice trip. If they are on the right altitude than it is likely they’ll have favourable katabatics all the way.

Weather4exeditions.com will send them daily windforecasts in order to choose the best route to have the best wind conditions.

You can follow this expedition on this page of www.weather4expeditions.com