Wind Direction

Wind speed tells you how far a spray can travel. Direction tells you where it goes. Neither number means much alone, which is why an application record carries both.

  • East
    Wind blowing from the east at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • None
    No discernible wind direction at the time of application. Usually means still air, which is not automatically the best condition for spraying.
  • North
    Wind blowing from the north at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • North East
    Wind blowing from the north-east at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • North West
    Wind blowing from the north-west at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • South
    Wind blowing from the south at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • South East
    Wind blowing from the south-east at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • South West
    Wind blowing from the south-west at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.
  • West
    Wind blowing from the west at the time of application. Recorded with the wind speed so the conditions at the time, and what was downwind, are on the record.

The same breeze is fine one way and unacceptable the other

Picture a six mile an hour breeze on a property with a vegetable garden along the east fence. Spraying the west side with that breeze blowing west is a routine application. Spraying the east side with the same breeze puts herbicide in the tomatoes.

Same day, same wind, same product, same tech. Direction is the only thing that changed, and it changed the answer from yes to no.

What our tech checks before starting

Whatever is downwind, and how far away. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees. A neighbour's ornamental beds. Open water — a pond, a ditch, an irrigation head running. Livestock and anything they graze. Beehives. An organic operation, where one drift event can cost a grower their certification.

Sometimes the answer is to spray a different part of the property that morning. Sometimes it is a granular product that cannot drift at all. Occasionally it is to come back another day.

Why it ends up on your paperwork

Colorado licenses commercial applicators and requires them to keep records of their applications. Beyond the requirement, the record does a specific job, and it works both ways.

If someone downwind has a problem, the record answers the question. A neighbour's shrubs brown out three weeks after we treated your lawn and they want to know why. The first thing anyone asks is whether our application could have reached them. A record showing a light wind blowing away from that property is an answer rather than an assurance.

And it protects you. Drift comes from somewhere — roadside spraying, an agricultural operation, a neighbour with a tank sprayer and no licence. If something on your property is damaged and it was not us, our record is part of showing that.

Honestly, we would keep it whether or not we were required to. Drift is the most common thing that goes wrong in this trade, and a written account of the conditions is the only thing that settles the argument afterward.

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