Where do Cut-Off Low go when they die? by Mike Godsey Every summer several Cut-Off Lows approach the west coast shaking up our forecasting of the California wind patterns. Then after a few days or even a week we suddenly stop mentioning the Cut-Off Low. The current Cut-Off Low was perfectly located to help funnel a combo of SW winds just…
For almost a week the Cut-Off Low you see in the imagery below has been spinning west to the Oregon/Washington border. This low has gridlocked the normal East to West movement of weather over west coast. But for the Bay Area is is perfectly located. The low itself is send SW flow aloft and marine layer clouds into…
Cut-Off Low usually have a bad rap but…… by Mike Godsey Cut-Off Lows form when a counter-clockwise spinning low pressure pinches off from passing upper troughs at around 18K feet. The winds at about 18K feet on the average are important in moving weather from west to east around the world. Once you have a Cut-Off Low to…
First the war stories then my analysis. by Mike Godsey Dmitry: “Madness increased beyond any measure as SFO shifted to 250degr and shot up to 39mph, but it became very bad on the water even 1hr before that. Peter A: “It was EXTREMELY gusty at 3rd. I was at the upper launch went out whitecaps…
We had a perfect Berkeley “T” yesterday day as the marine surge arrived here is the story in imagery. Here is the Berkeley T forming in the late afternoon as seen from the Berkeley hills.
Just a quick blog to show you photos from near dawn today. This is what the marine layer clouds looked like from Bay Area hilltops. I have also inserted an image from the Bodega 915 mhz profiler I use to determine the depth of the marine layer. Notice the cool marine layer air near the surface and the…
For a basic understanding of how marine surges in the Bay Area develop you should read the blog below entitled : Anatomy of a marine surge”. The marine surge that swept into the San Francisco Bay Area June 3, 4 and 5 was exceptionally strong. As you can see in the video below Sherman Island in the Delta held winds averaging…
This video from this Friday May, 31 shows the clouds and winds at about 18,000 feet in the pacific west of California. The dark green areas are high levels of moisture. The dark gray areas are very dry air. Notice the northward extending loop in the upper level clouds. This is called an upper level high…
The North Pacific High is anchored to the Central California coast by a near Omega Block over the Great Plains. Once this pattern breaks down the North Pacific High will begin its normal wobbling about the pacific sometimes favoring California other times Hawaii. Mike Godsey
Don’t you hate it when forecasters prattle on and on about upper troughs at 18,000 feet blah, blah etc. One, you ask, what the hell is an upper trough! And 2nd. how can anything thousands of feet above you have anything to do with the wind in your kite or sail? Well below is some…