by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com The satellite imagery below from today, May 7, 2019, really shows the lingering eddy in action. If you work the waters north of the Bay Bridge Eddy looks beautiful. But if the Peninsula or the coast is your home Eddy looks malevolent in this imagery. For many decades the North Pacific…
by Mike Godsey,mikeATiwindsurf.com For several weeks now our forecast team has been struggling with San Francisco Bay Area forecasting during a surface eddy pattern that is unprecedented in its duration and longevity. Now we have to add a Cut-Off Low up at ≈ 18,000 ft. to the mix. And there is a reason for the…
by Mike Godsey, Mike AT iwindsurf.com The meandering of eddies is unpredictable by their very nature of an eddy. Take a look at the eddy my banner above. As you can see it is positioned so it will shoot west wind through the Golden Gate towards Berkeley. Hence the famous Berkeley “T” you see in the…
by Mike Godsey, mike AT iwindsurf.com Note: This blog uses Southern California as an example of picking the best model using ship reports but the basic idea of the blog is relevant to all regions in the USA. On winter days as I walk through the La Ventana campground I am always impressed by the…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com As you can see in my banner animation above lots of sites had strong wind yesterday. The day played out pretty much as outlined in my 2 recent blogs about convergence aloft and the two NPH’s merging. This blog shows how the surface winds you see in the banner were related…
Upper convergence and divergence the strength of the North Pacific High: by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com ROUGH DRAFT There is a tendency of many kiters and especially sailors to look at the wind from a 2-dimensional perspective. This means we only care about the direction and strength of the wind. Although kiters are sometimes aware that their…
After long NW wind drought the Northern California coast is poised to rip next week! by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com If you kite or sail near the Northern California coast you are aware that our typical NW clearing winds have been sparse this year. First, we had a prolonged Omega Block that kept low pressure just…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com, More photos here Lots of you know about the thermal trough (aka “heat bubble”) that can kill some Southern California sites, especially from Belmont to Seal, when we get a major heat event. But if I am right we will be dealing with another thermal trough tomorrow, Monday, April 1. This…
by Mike Godsey, Mike AT iwindsurf.com This symbol, omega, is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and a famous watch brand. But in meteorology, it is the shape of the omega symbol, written in our upper-level winds, that has locked most of the west coast into a weather pattern with little day to day…
by Mike Godsey, mail: mike AT iwindsurf Recent days have seen cool powerful easterly winds in the western Gorge, powerful Santa Ana winds for Southern California, nagging wind killing NE winds just aloft over the Bay Area. And for the great majority of kiters and windsurfers, these easterly winds are useless. But there is one…