by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com Perhaps you noticed that our wind patterns keep on changing as the pattern of upper-level winds change. One new feature that is appearing is nagging long thin eddies that run along the coast creating southerly flow and favoring sites from about the Stick northward. For lack of an official label, I…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com There is nothing worse in forecasting that to get burnt missing a huge marine surge at the end of a heatwave. A typical marine surge not only brings a welcome cool down it also brings strong winds to many sites north of the Bay Bridge. And with a dry marine surge…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com In recent years counter-clockwise spinning eddies have become increasingly common west of the Golden Gate. These eddies are most likely to form when the winds of the North Pacific High are out at the ocean buoys but have an NNW direction rather than the more common NW wind (but several other factors…
by Mike Godsey A very atypical situation today as a storm tracks from the south through the interior of Oregon and Northern California. At 6AM the storm is centered just north of the Bay Area. Normally our storms approach from a westerly direction so the counter-clockwise spinning winds of the storm provide southerly storm winds…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com You may remember that 4-5 days ago I mentioned in the extended forecast that the North Pacific High would really expand this week. As you can see below that the NPH now spans the waters from Alaska to Hawaii to the tip of Baja. I also guesscast that we might see an…
by Mike Godsey ROUGH DRAFT text later today Southern California and San Francisco Bay Area kiters and windsurfers know the drill. A storm passes then the North Pacific High move towards the coast and its NW winds curve into the beaches. Today we see a pattern that is more common on the east coast with…
by Mike Godsey The satellite animation below shows a large counter-clockwise spinning Cut-Off Low over Southern California at ≈ 18,000 ft. Notice the fast-moving gravity waves rippling westward and northward from this disturbance. Further north the North Pacific High’s surface NW winds are being bumped towards San Francisco. But for this to happen tomorrow, Saturday,…
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…