Have you noticed the amazing sunrises and sunsets recently in the Bay Area? These 2 photos by Linh at Crissy on July 24 are spellbinding. In the first, the winds have faded, the wings, kites, and sails are being packed away, and wispy marine layer clouds are tiptoeing through the Golden Gate.
But just an hour later, a young couple takes in the sunset beauty that all of us too often take for granted. The marine layer clouds have thickened and drab brown heat wave air has been transmuted into a golden mass.
Personally, I love watching and photographing sunrises and sunsets, but as a meteorologist, I am also fascinated by the causes of that beauty.
You have probably noticed that during heat waves the marine layer clouds crushed closer to the surface and do not flow as far into the Bay. You may have noticed that the daytime sky often appears dull and dirty brown near the ground. But, like magic, sunrises/sunsets are most beautiful when we have heat waves.
First, the Met. Jargon backdrop. The greater San Francisco Bay Area received SW coast winds from a counter-clockwise eddy just west of us. Usually this means deep marine layer clouds flow far into the Bay with strong wind from the Golden Gate to the Delta.
But during this eddy event, there was also a ridge of high pressure over most of California. As these graphics show, subsiding air from that high pressure crushed the marine layer clouds and natural and human-made particulates towards the surface. While the resulting heat ballooned over the East Bay coast killing the winds.
So pardon me as I desecrate these glorious images from Linh and cam images from Marin and 3rd. Ave with meteorological annotations.
