In outdoor archery the wind is the weather condition you have to reckon with on every arrow, and it is now possible to say how much it weighs. In flight models, three metres per second of crosswind moves a recurve arrow 26 to 36 centimetres at 70 metres. In real competitions, the only large study finds lower scores when there is more wind, even at the same temperature, and when high-level archers are asked how they shot one of their arrows into the X, wind management is the theme that comes up most in the aiming phase.
Rain and humidity, on the other hand, do not show up in scores; heat does, and sooner than most people expect, while for moderate cold the answer depends on the model used to read the data. I start with the physics, how far and why the wind moves the arrow, go on to how many points it costs in competition, and end with how to read it and compensate for it on the field, with a section each on rain, cold and heat.
How far the wind moves the arrow
At 70 metres, with a crosswind of 3 metres per second perpendicular to the flight, two independent simulations of a recurve arrow give a drift of 26 to 36 centimetres. The gap between them comes from the assumptions in each model, and nobody has measured it with archers on a field, which is why the claim that at 70 m a crosswind moves the arrow far more than a head or tail wind is transferred: it stands on physics, not on competition measurements. On the 122 cm face, where each scoring ring is just over 6 centimetres wide, that drift is worth four or five rings, so an arrow aimed at the centre and left uncorrected lands in the six or the five.
Drift grows almost in proportion to the wind: in the more recent model it is 9 centimetres at one metre per second, 16 at two and 26 at three. With distance it grows faster, roughly with the square, because the arrow stays in the air longer and slows down as it goes: in a calculation for a compound arrow, drift at 90 metres is 62% greater than at 70. On the sight the difference is smaller, because a windage correction is an angle and the same movement of the pin shifts the arrow further at the longer distance.
-
Wind speed
It counts almost in proportion: all else being equal, doubling the wind roughly doubles the drift. It is the variable that matters most and also the hardest to judge by eye.
-
Wind direction
Only the part of the wind that blows across the flight moves the arrow sideways, so a wind at 45 degrees moves it less than a perpendicular wind of the same strength. A head or tail wind moves the arrow up or down, and by much less: in 3 metres per second, between 8 and 10 centimetres at 70 metres.
-
Distance and arrow
Drift grows roughly with the square of the distance, which is one reason why, in competition scores, arrow groups widen more than in proportion to distance. Which arrow drifts least, by diameter, mass and speed, I cover in the article on which arrow drifts least in the wind.
What happens to the arrow in the wind
The models behind these figures contain only two forces, gravity and air drag. That these are enough to say where the arrow lands was shown by a test with a compound bow mounted on a shooting machine: the sight setting found at each distance fell on the curve of a calculation that contained nothing else. It is a single test, with no archer and no wind, so the claim that gravity and air drag are enough to say where the arrow lands is reported; but every drift estimate rests on it.
Drag also slows the arrow throughout its flight, and this is one of the few equipment questions the registry rates as corroborated: along its flight the arrow loses an appreciable part of its launch speed. An inertial sensor inside the shaft of arrows fired by compressed air measured about 8% lost over 55 metres indoors, and the same researchers note that over a seventy metre field the loss is around 15%. An arrow that slows down stays exposed to the wind for longer, which is why drift grows faster than distance.
A crosswind adds a second effect. The arrow ends up flying at an angle to the air meeting it, and in a flight model with a 3 metre per second crosswind that angle reaches three degrees, against about half a degree for the same wind from ahead or behind. In wind tunnel and free-flight measurements, going past that half degree is enough for the layer of air around the shaft to turn from laminar to turbulent and for the drag coefficient to rise from about 1.5 to about 2.6, nearly double: an arrow flying at an angle to the airflow suffers far more drag. In the model, at 57 metres per second, drag goes from 45% to 80% of the arrow's weight, and the sideways deviation grows with it. A crosswind, then, pushes the arrow and at the same time puts it into the regime in which the air slows it most.
The claim is reported, and its limits matter to anyone shooting. Nearly all the measurements come from a single research group in Tokyo, using arrows fired by compressed air, which do not flex; and arrows shot with her own recurve by an experienced national team archer came out already in the turbulent regime, with a coefficient of 2.65. With a real release the shaft flexes, and the arrow can be in the high-drag regime even without wind: in that case there is no jump, because it has already happened. The detail, including the part played by points and vanes, is in the article on how much the air slows an arrow down.
The same mechanism has a consequence for height. Within a certain speed band the same arrow, launched the same way, can fly in either regime, and the authors calculate that at 60 metres the difference is worth about 15 centimetres on the target, vertically: it would be an arrow that leaves well and lands high or low for no visible reason. The claim that within a certain speed band the arrow can fly in either of two regimes, and that shifts the point of impact in height is reported as well. The shift is a calculation, nobody has counted impacts at two heights, and the national team archer, who was already shooting above that band, always produced the same regime.
How many points the wind costs
The most solid count from real competitions covers 3,196 Chinese professional archers, followed through outdoor qualification rounds between 2010 and 2016: at the same temperature, the more wind there is, the lower the score, both as the average per arrow and as the share of arrows in the 10. It needs reading with two caveats. Competitions are postponed when the wind is too strong, so the sample stops at 5.38 metres per second, the range in which archers actually shoot; and the wind is taken from local weather stations, not from the shooting line. It is an association on a single circuit, and the status is reported.
A figure in points comes from a single event, the 2013 World Championships in Antalya. In the men's recurve the 90 and 70 metres were shot in the morning with little wind, the 50 and 30 in the afternoon in a moderate wind of about 3 to 5 metres per second, and at 50 metres scores fell about 5 points over 36 arrows short of what the morning had predicted. The wind there is estimated, and temperature changes between morning and afternoon as well. At a World Cup stage in Shanghai, in a wind of about two metres per second, a flight model checked against target photographs puts the first arrows at 70 metres 12 to 13 centimetres from the centre, and after the correction made by eye deviations of 8 and 13 centimetres remain, where the correction worked out by the model would have kept the arrow within 6.
That wind is the main problem is something archers say too, in a single study and from a particular angle. In 2025 sixty-five high-level Korean archers, averaging 327 out of 360 at 70 metres, described in writing, phase by phase, how they had shot one of their arrows into the X. In aiming and release, wind management is the most cited theme, with 76 mentions out of 157; in the draw and anchor, however, the external condition named most often is quiet. The claim that for high-level archers wind is the main thing to manage outdoors is therefore reported, on a single nation and on memories of their best shots, and it applies to the moment of aiming more than to the whole shot.
How wind, heat and humidity are measured in these studies, and why the wind at a weather station is not the wind the arrow meets, I explain on the page about how wind, heat and humidity are measured in competition studies.
How to read the wind on the field
Reading the wind means combining what you see, what you feel on your skin and what the previous arrows did. Each of these readings has a limit, and cross-checking them is how you cover for the limits of the others.
-
Indicator 01
Field flags
On competition fields the flags stand above the targets and along the field, and how far they lean, flutter and stand out tells you the speed and direction of the wind. How much wind it takes to make a flag stand out depends on its weight and size, so it pays to learn to read the flags on the field where you train. Several flags at different distances show whether the wind changes along the arrow's path.
- Advantage
- They cover the whole field
- Limitation
- They react with a slight lag
-
Indicator 02
Trees, leaves, grass
Treetops and tall grass give a continuous reading, including where the flags do not reach. They are always there, and they are most useful on fields with few flags, or with flags too heavy to move in a light wind.
- Advantage
- Always available
- Limitation
- Treetops feel the wind higher up than the arrow
-
Indicator 03
Skin sensation
The feel of the wind on your face and hands only becomes accurate after personal calibration, built up by comparing it with an anemometer over many training sessions. It also has a limit that no calibration removes: in a calculation, a wind of 0.3 metres per second, too light to feel, already moves the arrow about 2 centimetres at 70 metres.
- Requirement
- Personal calibration
- Limitation
- It misses the lightest wind
-
Indicator 04
The arrows of the previous end
Where the arrows of the previous end landed sums up everything the wind did along the flight: speed, direction, gusts and differences between one stretch of the field and another. If the last arrows all went right of centre, the wind is pushing from the left, and their average point of impact is the figure to start your correction from.
- Advantage
- It sums up the whole flight
- Limitation
- It tells you about the wind that has passed
How to compensate for the wind
Once you have read the wind, there are two ways to compensate: hold to one side of the centre, known as aiming off, or move the sight with the windage clicks and keep aiming at the centre. Aiming off is quick and follows a wind that changes from one arrow to the next, but it asks you to hold on a point of the target that is not the centre. A click leaves your aim on the centre, where it has always been, but it takes more time and struggles to keep up with a changing wind. Many archers do both: they set the sight for the average wind of the end and aim off for the small corrections from arrow to arrow.
When archers are asked how they compensated, though, the answer that comes up most is neither. In the open answers of the sixty-five Korean archers, of the 76 mentions of wind, 58 concern adjusting the strength of the shot, 10 calculating the wind before releasing and 8 staying focused on the 10 zone. The claim that in wind, experienced archers say they adjust the strength of the shot more than they calculate drift is reported, with limits worth keeping in mind: these are memories of successful shots, nobody measured the wind or the correction on the target, and "adjusting the strength of the shot" is a broad expression that the study does not break down. At least one of the archers, moreover, describes shifting the aim when the wind is strong, which is precisely calculating drift.
Either way, the decision belongs before you come to aim: read the wind, choose the correction and then shoot with your usual technique, without reopening the correction halfway through the aim.
In gusty wind, timing matters too. When the wind keeps changing, many archers wait a moment for a lull before releasing rather than shooting into a full gust, and within the time limit for the end there is nearly always some room to do so. Against gusts many archers also add mass to the bow, since a heavier bow moves less under the same push. A review of how the atmosphere affects target archery notes the practice and observes that it is physically demanding and, in the author's view, may raise the likelihood of injury; how much it gains on the target, however, nobody has measured, either on a machine or with archers, and the claim that adding mass to the bow reduces the effect of wind gusts remains not studied.
Rain and humidity
Rain brings practical problems that anyone who has shot in it will know: the target looks less sharp just when your gaze should settle on the centre, in the quiet eye, and with wet hands the grip on the bow changes, with the risk that the release changes too. On the score, however, it does not show. In the study of Chinese professional archers, the day's rainfall has no significant effect, partly because competitions are halted in heavy showers, and relative humidity on its own is never significant. The rainfall in the study, however, is a daily average for the area, not the rain that fell while the archers were shooting.
On the arrow's flight there is nothing of practical use either: drag depends on air density, which changes with temperature, pressure and humidity, but a 2019 review finds no study of how much humidity, temperature and rain change the flight. Taken as a whole, the claim that rain, humidity and temperature make no measurable difference to the score is contested, and what splits it is heat: on rain and humidity the study supports it, on temperature combined with humidity it runs against it.
In practice, a cap with a stiff peak to keep drops out of your eyes and a towel to dry your hands and the grip between arrows are all you need.
Shooting in the cold
In the cold, the first things to change are in the body. Shoulders and elbows stiffen and the movement loses fluency, so the warm-up needs to be longer; the fingers lose sensitivity, and for anyone shooting with fingers, contact with the string becomes less precise. Thin gloves to wear between ends, or ones made for archery, help you avoid coming to aim with cold hands.
On the score the picture is uncertain. The only data come from the same study of Chinese archers, and they depend on the model. In the one the authors choose as their main model, which accounts for wind, days with a heat index between 14 and 18 degrees and days below 14 cannot be told apart from the reference band of 18 to 22; without the wind interaction, however, the two cold bands lose 0.31 and 0.22 points per arrow. That is why the claim that moderate cold does not lower competition scores is contested. Severe cold, moreover, was never tested: the lowest heat index in the sample is 4.6 degrees, and what is measured is the air, not the archer's hands.
Shooting in the heat
In the heat scores fall, and they start falling sooner than you might think. In the same study, compared with a day at a heat index of 18 to 22 degrees, with no wind a quarter of a point per arrow is already lost between 22 and 26 degrees, about 3%, and above 34 the loss reaches 10 to 13% of the average score per arrow. The claim that extreme heat lowers competition scores is reported, from a single large and well-designed study. What counts is the combination of temperature and humidity, the heat index, and some wind softens the loss in moderate heat, but above 34 degrees it is not enough.
Hydration is the first thing that comes to mind, and the data on archers are less obvious than the advice. In the only experiment with usable figures, ten national-level archers shot the same round at 70 metres, at 36 to 37 degrees, once hydrated and once dehydrated: the score did not drop, while perceived thirst and fatigue rose, the concentration the archers felt they had fell, and heart rate was higher. One study found that arriving dehydrated at a competition in the heat does not lower the score, and it is reported: the target does not notice, the archer does. Shade between ends when there is any, a wide-brimmed hat and a damp towel on the back of the neck help you feel better in the hot hours.
Training in the heat in the days before a competition is common advice. The only data on archers' scores, though, look at a longer timescale: competition experience and years of training in the heat reduce the effect of heat on scores, while hot days in the months before the competition show no protective effect. Moving out of the least experienced quarter of the sample cuts the loss above 34 degrees by about 40%, and archers who train in southern China, where scorching days are more frequent, lose less than those who train in the north. It is reported, from a single observational study.
Training in the wind
You learn the wind by shooting in it. Archers who train only on fine days reach competition without ever having tried the correction they will need, so keep some outdoor sessions for the days with wind, drizzle, cold or strong heat.
To build the skill methodically, keep a weather log: at each session, note the estimated wind and its direction, the temperature, the correction you used and the average point of impact of each end. After a few months you can see which winds you handle well, which approach works best with your style and in which conditions your score drops.
Two tools speed things up. A portable anemometer, used in training for a few weeks, lets you calibrate what you feel on your skin against a measurement; a small flag planted next to your shooting position shows the wind where you are actually shooting, not the general wind on the field. Hourly wind forecasts, finally, help you plan sessions in the conditions you want to practise in and tell you what to expect at a competition.