By Mike Godsey
Click on image for full size image: View from Sutro Tower at 7 AM today Friday, Oct. 4, 2024
Notice Heat Bubble issues first several hundred feet despite white caps further out to the Golden Gate.

Forecast: FADE LIKELY! Mild BRIEF barely useful winds reach near Larkspur/Clark’s Brickyards, Flying Tigers/Haskins and Brooks Island and North Tower to Point Blunt.


Now at 11:30 AM: High clouds are streaming over Sonoma and the Napa Valley which was suppose to be our strongest pressure gradient so I am dropping the forecast wind values



From 7:30 AM: The huge upper ridge that brought record temperatures moves eastward overnight, but a smaller heat producing upper ridge continues the heat. This causes the wind killing low-pressure over the coast in the AM to retreat inland in the afternoon. This sets up a mild pressure gradient inside the Bay. Weirdly, the max pressure gradient is towards Napa so expect BRIEF low to

mid-teens winds at Larkspur/Clark’s Brickyards then a fast FADE. The North Tower to near mid-span reach the upper-teens fading to mid-teens near Treasure Island with low-teens outside of Brooks Island. On the Peninsula expect mid-teens near Flying Tigers/Haskins and maybe The Stick. Chance mid to weak upper-teens in the Coyote and 3rd Channel with weak foil range wind to the launch sites. Waddell may reach the mid to upper-teens outside but nearby NNE winds aloft may make the surface winds unreliable. Heat Bubble issues at most sites will

Now at 11:30 AM: There is a faint Marine Surge working its way up the coast with fog near Moss Landing and southerly winds at Waddell, Half Moon Bay and Stinson Beach. It is still crazy glassy calm below the Golden Gate with both N. and S. towers in double vision mode. So I am sticking to the present forecast but would not be surprised if the winds were weaker especially inside at 3rd. Ave.

make the winds up and down and FAST late FADE is likely!