Author: Mike Godsey

West Coast Wind Blog: Day by Day anatomy of how a storm leads to NW clearing winds on the West Coast.

So you all know the spring ti me routine. In April through mid-May many storms are followed by clearing and then NW winds. These fabled NW winds clearing winds are accelerated by low-pressure that develops inland in the wake of a passing storm. As Global Weirding progresses we are sometimes seeing NW clearing winds at…

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West Coast Wind Blog: How Waddell and Natural Bridges respond different pressure gradients.

From xxxxxxxxxxxx@sbcglobal.net “Mike said the gradient to Stockton would affect Natural Bridges and then the gradient to Bakersfield would affect Waddell. How is that? I would think either gradient would affect either one almost equally.“ Hi XXXXXXX, Thanks for the Feedback!  As you can imagine, condensing complex wind flow patterns into mere words in a forecast…

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West Coast Wind Blog: The nature of the beast…A Cut-off Low kills San Francisco. Southern California and the Pacific Northwest wind.

Sure it was Sept. 2 which is around when the San Francisco, Southern California and Gorge winds BEGIN to fade but we rarely see zero to faint winds for the entire West Coast this early in the fall. Take a look at these forecasts! Reading the forecasts you notice 2 things in common. They all…

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West Coast Wind Blog: Lingering eddy makes Pt. Isabel winds better than the optimistic forecast and 3rd. Ave. worse than the pessimistic forecast.

My 7:30 AM forecast had good winds forecast for Pt. Isabel and good but WEST winds in the 3rd Ave. Channel and crappy winds for the 3rd. Ave. launch site winds. And there was a decent chance of brief Anita Rock winds close to Crissy Field. Then, around 11 AM, I issued this update because…

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Hilary Trajectory: Warm water, Upper high pressure, Cut-off Low, Subsidence, El Niño and Climate Change.

Hurricane Hilary had a very atypical trajectory and strength as it neared Baja Norte and Southern California waters. And today, August 21, moisture from Hilary is high in the atmosphere spreading clouds over large parts of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Hilary’s rain set all-time records for…

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