Take a look at the satellite view below of the beefy spinning eddy this morning just west of the Bay Area. You can see why my forecast is rather bold since I expect this spiraling mass of air to be destroyed by mid-afternoon. Let’s see! My forecast: “The North Pacific High’s surface NW winds slowly…
Here is satellite and cam imagery from dawn today July 9. The imagery shows the developing battle between WNW and WSW flow that will play out near 3rd. Ave. and near Pt. Isabel and Berkeley today. When the marine layer is the perfect depth like today the NW ocean winds hitting the Pt. Reyes Peninsula…
For me, the first hint of the coming west coast weirdness was while forecasting in Baja this past winter season. For several decades the winds on Baja’s East Cape have become less reliable, and gustier and the massive all-day/all-night El Norte winds were rarer. But this winter we had a great season but the source…
Hard to believe just yesterday the Gorge was well over 90 and dead until midafternoon while at dawn today it was in the 50’s with gusts into the 30’s. And our Weatherflow meteorologists are limited to words to describe the upper trough at ≈18,000 feet that is behind this weather event. So let me introduce…
San Francisco customer says: “Hey Mike, Check out the graphs for Larkspur yesterday and today. Those extreme up and down sequences are rather unusual for our sea breeze conditions. Is there some way you could have predicted the up and down conditions? Rick“ Hi Rick, One of the main ways I learned to improve the…
Ken says: “Some questions on forecast maps. The first is quite common – a patch of high wind at SFO or just downwind. I understand that the San Bruno gap focuses the wind laterally, but going up and downwind, why does it peak in such a small region? And if it’s so windy there, doesn’t…
We all know that San Francisco Bay Area forecasts are sometimes wrong. So all of you have learned to look for obvious hints that forecast has gone bad before you make the long drive. The most obvious hint is to look at how your site’s sensor and nearby sensors are ramping up. But that only…
You rarely expect a perfect forecast. There are far too many variables and far too few weather stations, especially for the vast Pacific upon which to base a forecast. But you rarely expect to have something as basic as the wind direction wrong by almost 120 degrees. I achieved that infamy yesterday, June 9, 2022. My…
Spring on the west coast is usually fairly predictable even on the large scale. In March the North Pacific High’s average size increases and it moves closer to Baja Norte and wave folks migrate to fables Punta San Carlos and the endless wave. On the California coast, spring means mild winds and gentle weather. Then in…
You know the melody by heart. On the California coast, spring means mild winds and gentle weather. Then a storm hits, passes, then departs. And as the rain ends, clouds thin and strong NW clearing winds rake the coast and curve in the San Francisco Bay. They are strongest the first day, mellower the second…