That's true... this shows 20ft winds (20ft above the avg height of the vegetation, so in timber is 20ft above the trees, in open marsh or field it basically reflects eye level winds), but this the best there is for now that is scientifically proven, I wouldn't trust any other app to be more accurate, some are more user friendly and quick for sure.
There are going to be wind eddies for sure, but if you learn to read it you can determine were they are likely to be for instance if you look at the map at the ridge with orange (~9-12mph winds) and then there is a narrow strip of one yellow (~6-8mph) row before green (~3-5mph) which has a wider line. So in that area of rapid decelerating wind is that low pressure your talking about in the upper 1/3 of the ridge (bottom of the upper 1/3 to be more precise) where you will find the most pronounced eddies in the timber stand, like your experience has told you to expect in that area. What this program does tell you is about how high or low that pressure line is which without it you wouldn't likely know before hand without having sat in that draw several times in similar weather conditions.
Also in defense of the program it models 20ft winds, and I ran the quick analysis run for a quick screen shot. If you run a detailed run it can take a while to process (15mins - an hour) but can include diurnal winds as an option as well as changed the size of each parcel forcasted (for instance the model above I made to run quick so it estimated winds in every 150ft blocks.
To the best of my knowledge it is the premier wind modeler available to the public. I have taken advanced fire weather courses taught by meteorologists from NOAA who use this program. If you know of a wind modeler with better detail I would like to know so I can play with it.
I didn't mean to imply that wind app wasn't a useful tool or that there are better apps. I do like windy.com for it's animated screen and also the ability to scroll ahead on the date (or hour), but my main point was that although apps are helpful, they can't show the intricate surface patterns that are so important to whether we get busted or not. Analyze app maps and then apply the data to our specific
surface location. No app will show updrafts, downdrafts, and reversal eddies. Surface patterns are much more dynamic than prevailing patterns, but many surface behaviors do what they do on a given day based on the combination of the prevailing wind flowing over complex terrain and structure, and thermal activity.
The app in post #22 shows all wind traveling roughly West to East. That's the prevailing wind, it's not necessarily surface wind. Knowing the prevailing wind direction
and speed only helps us predict surface winds. In a lot of cases, surface wind is incredibly fickle but using wind apps like the one in #22 does help us predict what will actually happen on the surface based on leeward or windward slopes and also sun exposure as the day progresses.
It's pretty amazing how individual structure features can dictate surface behaviors.
One stand I used to hunt was 40 yards off of a wide open pasture and the stand was in thick cover. The tree line was E-W. If a fairly strong wind blew quarterly from the cover to the field, the wind would corkscrew down to the ground, and along the low pressure seam of the tree line and suck right along the tree line at ground level. When the wind reached to far end of the pasture it then shot up due to the high pressure in the other patch of woods. But if the wind quartered from the pasture toward the cover, the woods became a high pressure area and an up draft formed. But with a lighter wind with ether scenario, those behaviors were much less prevalent. But any wind app would have shown only the prevailing wind.
Another example...
On one particular hunt, I had one lone pine near a stand absorb heat from the intense morning sun and an updraft was created right on the SE side of that tree. The tree was to the West of me and the light, stable, prevailing wind that morning was from the North. It was a partly cloudy day...half the time the sun shown brightly and heated the SE side of that
dark pine, and the other half of the time the fluffy cumulous clouds rolled it and blocked the sun and that dark tree no longer absorbed heat. When it was sunny, the wind N to S prevailing wind switched 90 degrees...it sucked Westward over to that pine and shot straight up until it reached treetops and then continued Southbound just like the prevailing wind. But when the clouds covered the sun, and there was no absorptive heating of the pine, the surface wind switched back to the N to S flow. All morning I observed the wind switch over and over and I wondered why the 90 degree switch because I was not in a low pressure zone. The wind should not have been switching because I was not in an eddy. But my milkweed showed me exactly what was happening. I have to say, figuring that out that day was not only very enjoyable, it also was yet another learning moment about surface wind behavior.
Wind apps are great. I use them often. But not with the thoughts that surface wind will be doing what prevailing winds are doing. The apps help
me predict what surface winds will actually be doing.