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…
by Mike Godsey, Mike AT iwindsurf.com About 25 years ago, when the first windsurfers “discovered” La Ventana, “Weather Man” Tom and I started studying Baja winds using the daily data collection form you see in this first image. Since then my main goal was to figure out what caused the La Ventana and Los Barriles,…
Strong North Pacific High + low pressure in Great Basin + strong winds aloft = Epic winds! by Mike Godsey, mike AT iwindsurf.com Strong wind ruled the west coast on March 12, 2019. Here is a visual summary of the causes and the results: Note the North Pacific High off the west coast. Look at…
Weak winds prevail today as eddy spins. by Mike Godsey, mike AT iwindsurf.com There is a robust North Pacific High today stretching from Hawaii to Puget Sound. But it has an extension or ridge that is moving towards the Columbia River Gorge. This means that the North Pacific High’s surface NW winds are more NNE…
by Mike Godsey mike@ikitesurf.com, Photos & Videos Did you notice how the El Norte this morning forecast upper-teens to low 20’s with periods much stronger especially outside? The baseline for our winds was relatively strong El Norte winds from the 4 corners with a bit of help from the North Pacific High and our local…
by Mike Godsey, mike@iwindsurf.com For more photos from Baja and the west coast click this link. Sometimes I just have to put weasel words in the forecast even when almoat everything looks promising in the early morning. In today’s forecast, Thursday, February 21, 2019, those weasel words were “If heavy clouds to the west do…
by Mike Godsey, Mike AT ikitesurf.com If you ply the waters of the west coast of the USA from The Gorge to Punta San Carlos, Baja Norte you know the winds of the North Pacific High intimately since they are the critical part of your summer wind machine. So you already know all about the…
by Mike Godsey, mike AT kitesurf.com Part ONE: Today, Sunday, February 17, 2019 the North Pacific High is pumping wind into the Sea of Cortez from the Pacific side of Baja. You can see this happening in Part 2 of this blog below. Since this Pacific wind is largely NW it arrives as side-offshore wind…
by Mike Godsey, mikeATiwindsurf.com I hope this is not your first year kiting or windsurfing on Baja’s East Cape. If it is your first year don’t let first impressions count much in thinking about a return visit. Normally heavy rains, frequent heavy clouds, shifty up and down winds are uncommon during the winter. Rather the…
by Mike Godsey, iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com Weatheflow.com So for days I have been saying the wind drought will begin to end Wednesday Feb. 6 and really end with a bang Thursday. This brief blog shows you the big picture behind this event. Remeber that wind is always produced by a pressure gradient. At the most local level…