Did you sleep through it? The Gorge makes more than pretty pictures. It also makes wild weather. Last night, a windy cold front passed, and the combo of Adams, Hood, and the Gorge acted as a wind funnel, making for gusts near 60 near the water and gusts over 100 in the mountains. Here is…
1- The North Pacific High and high-pressure in the 4-Corners are north of their perfect locations again today so mid-teens El Norte winds. 2- Those mid-teen winds are accelerated to mid to upper-teens by low-pressure south of Cabo in a near perfect location. 3- Blue sky allows the Los Planes and Santiago Valleys to heat…
We watched a rigging frenzy today just north of Rasta Beach near El Sargento. The winds had gone from calm and cloudy to northerly upper-teens minutes. Since I had forecast such a wind spike, I was apprehensive, ESPECIALLY since the winds at our house were blowing WEST despite the northerly surface winds. Some wingers like…
Saturday’s Wind Recipe: 1- Pt. Reyes SE 28g33 and fog blasting by the North Tower! That tells us that Big Eddy and southerly coast winds will rule all day! 2-The eddy started as a Gulf of Alaska storm/cold front pushed high-pressure into the Pacific Northwest. 3- This caused low-pressure to bulge over the coast from…
Sunday’s Wind Jargon Decoder: 1- A distant cold front bringing rain to the Gorge is compacting the NW ocean winds along our coast. 2- The dawn view from space shows NW ripples in the fog just offshore confirming that NW winds ≈ 1000 feet aloft will add a strong gust factor to the launch sites…
Day by day, watch the dance of the North Pacific High and its ridge extending into and beyond the Pacific Northwest, and the low-pressure extending from the Central Valley. Note the shrinking and retreat of that ridge and the low-pressure impact on the size and location of the surface eddy that is bringing southerly coast…
Friday’s Wind Recipe: 1- A lobe of the North Pacific High has moved into the Pacific Northwest and far Northern California while the Central Valley low is bulging way west of the Marin/Sonoma coast. 2-This creates an S. to N. pressure gradient, so southerly eddy coast winds are blowing from Waddell to Pt. Reyes this…
Sunday’s Wind Recipe: 1- Surrounded by unseasonal low-pressure storms to the West, North and South the North Pacific High’s isobars are compacted along the coast just like a typical May day.2- This causes very strong NW ocean winds with the San Francisco ocean buoy surface NW winds are NW 20g25 3- Sunday sees strong pressure…
We are all used to seeing random gusts and lulls in the kite and windsurf wind graphs. This gives the wind graph a a jagged appearance. On good days the jags are small on bads days they are huge This first image shows a typical random wind pattern at Waddell on Thursday, July 31. But…