Unexpected early arrival of SW winds aloft sends streamer of marine layer clouds into Bay Area and brings sudden spikes in wind. As I mentioned in a blog a few days ago the wind patterns over the pacific are a mess with will fluctuations in the upper level winds. In that state forecasting becomes difficult and…
How often do you see forecasts like this in the Gorge? I mean we do sometimes do see summertime low to mid 30’s but what is with all the VERY GUSTY AND UNSETTLED….UNRELIABLE stuff. Well the winds Benjamin is forecasting for this Saturday are very different from typical summer winds. As I pointed out in…
The pacific weather pattern is a mess! Any veteran windsurfer or kiter, whether from the Gorge, Bay Area, California coast or Southern California or even Hawaii, will attest that this has been a weird summer season. The proximal cause of the atypical winds is the unusual shape and locations of the North Pacific High. In the…
Upper level high pressure sweeps moisture from the Gulf of Mexico over Old and New Mexico to Southern California. Looking aloft today you will see scattered high clouds but over the Southern California deserts the clouds are much more dense. Most of the isolated showers from this monsoonal moisture will only create isolated showers in the…
Inbound shortwave deepens marine layer and jacks up pressure gradient. Compare Crysta’s iwindsurf.com forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. How can conditions change from limp winds to upper 20’s overnight? First let’s review what is causing the current limp winds by looking at the imagery in my last blog. The heat producing ridge you see in that…
How expanding low pressure impacts Southern California, Bay Area and Gorge winds. “There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear” Buffalo Springfield Sometimes meteorology seems to jargon ridden to wind seekers that it is hard to figure out what is actually happening. It is hard enough to make sense of all this high…
Watch as Cut-Off Low opens up into an upper trough then exits the West Coast. You are used to hearing about the passing upper trough that pass over the west coast and occasional upper ridges that bob around from the Great Basin. These upper features are upper winds wind around the earth. When these winds…
New NPH prepares to bully its way to the coast Wednesday but wind quality may suffer. Today Wednesday Aug.12: The winds are picking up as forecast in the corridor but there are several issues that may limit the wind distribution and make for exceptionally up and down winds at some sites. Looking at this new animation you can see that the…
Here is what a cold front looks like wind wise. You are all familiar with the way a cold is depicted in the media. Take a look at this first image from today and you can see the small storm system that is pressing the North Pacific High’s surface NW winds close to the Bay…