by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com ROUGH DRAFT There was a recent forum thread on the Gorge Classic iwindsurf.com page asking “are there gustier winds this summer?” The forum thread had answers ranging from “Obviously!” to “I hear this every year!” How you expereince gusts is impacted by many things like your gear, sail size, years in…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com Check out this wishy-washy forecast today. Basically, I am said that the winds might be strong or might be weak. Why couldn’t I pin it down more precisely for Pismo and Isla Vista to Ledbetter? Basically, because there was a going to be a battle waged over both sites as NNE to…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com Backcast: Pt. Isabel low to mid 20’s was clearly stronger than the mid to upper-teens I forecast! Why can’t we forecast such strong eddy winds reliably? Just take a look at this hourly animation of the eddy today August 18, 2019. Notice how much it changes from hour to hour and…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com Yesterday, Wed. August 14, 2019 I really blew the Isla Vista to Ledbetter forecast and Ventura went over the mid-teens forecast. True, I did warn of “much stronger winds than forecast if the Gaviota eddy died” But still… it was a crappy forecast. This an animated blog about what happened that…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com As you all know the location, thickness and movement of the marine layer clouds are critical in making the winds at every site in the San Francisco Bay Area. The same is true in forecasting. The difference is that we have to try to forecast where the clouds will be many…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com Forecasting for Pismo winds in the summer is very tricky and we are slowly learning the complexities of this area. Here are some of our baby steps up the Pismo forecasting learning curve. The marine layer clouds are often way inland in the morning in the Pismo area. But despite the clouds…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com On this day the WF-WRF barely showed a hint of an eddy. The NAM surface had a better hint. But, as I have noticed again and again for larger elongated eddies, the 950 & 975 NAM do a very good job forecasting existence of an eddy and its duration. Also notice…
by Mike Godsey, iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com, mikeATwindsurf.com I took the helicopter photo in my banner above on a day when it was nearly calm at Pt. Diablo just outside the Golden Gate’s north tower. But the strong NW aloft were buffeting the copter and there were strong surface winds inside the Golden Gate off Crissy. This morning…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com In Part 1 of this blog, Blame in on the kid I wrote about how unusual this season has been due in part to an El Nino pattern. And for the west coast, El Nino means an unusually southerly storm track. That blog left off talking about an 1000 mile…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com Here is part 2 of this blog. Did you notice how much weaker the Gorge winds were yesterday July 8, 2019? And you have also probably noticed that this season has mostly had cooler air and water temperatures for this time of year. And there have been more winds out…