Author: Mike Godsey

West Coast Wind Blog: Distant Cut Off Low fans SoCal fire winds while bringing gust El Norte winds over Baja beaches.

Some new ingredients for todays wind recipe: 1. 1000 miles due west of La Ventana an upper Cut Off Low is creating a surface low-pressure which helps draw early wind right to our beaches. 2. High-pressure near the  4-Corners region fans the Southern California Santa Ana fire winds while sending El Norte winds down the…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Imagery autopsy of a dismal wind day for Baja.

Note: This autopsy imagery covers the impact of low-pressure over the Sea of Cortez on Baja’s East Cape winds. Tragically, that same low-pressure helped created massive Santa Ana winds in Southern California creating nightmare fire conditions. That event will be covered in an upcoming blog. Here is the text part of my wind forecast for…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Baja’s East Cape launch sites are sandwiched between 2 wind killers.

Note: Despite the AM glassy waters use caution fishing and kayaking near arroyos since there is a chance of random strong WEST wind blasts. Bottom Line: Sub to maybe low-teens near arroyos as strong westerly wind hitting the mountain tops sometimes comes down the arroyos where it disrupts the weak E to ENE surface winds. Today’s Wind…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Why does the Baja Sea of Cortez coast have early morning westerly winds? Part 1.

If you have ever camped along the coast of the sea in the winter you are very aware of the cool westerly breeze that blows most early mornings. In this model animation from ikitesurf.com/WeatherFlow-Tempest you can see the strong El Norte winds that often blow all night in the Sea of Cortez. However, at 7…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Chance of a wind killing Cut Off Low middle of next week Jan. 7-9

When a Cut-Off Low moves over Baja California during the winter, it can significantly impact surface winds and weather in the region. Here’s what typically happens: Cut-off lows are an upper low “cut off” from the main jet stream with upper winds spinning around the low-pressure center. Since they are no longer attached to the main…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Part 2: Causes of the low-pressure south of Cabo that turbocharges the Sea of Cortez winter winds

Part 1 of this blog covered the basics of how low-pressure south to southeast of Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja often impacts the winter winds in the Sea of Cortez. In that blog this graphic showing how that low-pressure can produce winds even when the big wind machines, the NPH and the…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Low pressure south of Cabo turbocharges the Sea of Cortez winter winds, Part 1.

It is Baja meteorology 101 gospel that the strongest winter Sea of Cortez winds are created by high pressure in the USA’s 4-Corners region. You can see this high-pressure area in the circle of white isobar lines in this first image. Notice how those lines get closer together over the Sea of Cortez. The closer…

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