Point 'er into the wind Captain.....

[Steve M.]

I'm not sure that this is a scientific study or not, but Sunday as I was preparing a boneless pork loin, in less than perfect weather conditions (38 degrees and a fair NNW wind), I was having some problems.

Fired up the smoker with a chimney of lit coals, added a chimney of unlit and my apple smoke wood. After the temp ran up to around 375, I aded the meat. It appeared to stablize around 360. After 20-30 minutes, the WSM started dropping fairly rapidly, down to 320 or so. I went out to check it, to make sure there wasn't a problem of some sort. When I went out, I noticed the wind blowing fairly stiff.

I remembered using my Weber kettle and using the wind to control heat (pointing vents into the wind, etc.) So I simply rotated the lid, so it was on the lee side (away from the wind). The temp started to come back up at once (several degrees/minute). Basically, at that point, the bottom vents that were open, were pointed directly into the wind, the lid vent was opposite. This was causing the air to draft across the fire and up and out the opposite side on the lid. The temp then stablized around 350 and stayed steady and I finished the cook. (Awesome Italian dressing injected loin, BTW)

Am I imagining this, or do others use the wind to manage tempature?

 

[Chris Allingham]

Moving to Beginner's Forum.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Rick Moore]

I always make adjustments based on the weather; especially the wind.

By opening the lower vents that are pointed into the wind, you are allowing the wind to blow in providing additional oxygen making the fire burn hotter. Also, by pointing the top vent downwind, you are creating a small vacuum that will suck the air from the bottom vents through even more - thus creating an even stronger draft through the WSM - this is what caused the fire to ramp up so quickly in temperature.

But, rereading the question, you may have known this already...in answer to your question - I would say I don't use the wind to manage temperature, but factor it in to everything I do in managing temperature. It is just another part of it.

 

[Guest]

Now I'm really confused. Last weekend I did 2 butts. Fairly consistant southernly breeze; but my deck seems to make the breeze swirl around (30 seconds south-10 seconds north) back and forth. When the temp (in the dome) reached 200 I started to panic. Opened all lower vents to 100% with dome wide open. After an hr the temp hadn't changed. After some thought I decide to shut down the lower vents. The temp steadily rose back to 240 and stayed till the end.
Seems to me the additional wind may have increased combustion but also created a drafting effect pulling heat out of the smoker as fast as it was created.
I've played with windy conditions (not many times) to try and figure it out.
The only conclusion thus far is; Wind does'nt blow-it sucks.