Check out this forecast for Pt. Isabel and Berkeley today. When there is a heat wave and no marine layer or a thin marine layer that retreats fast, it becomes very difficult to forecast East Bay winds. This is because the hot air from the East Bay hills and the Central Valley extends towards Sherman…
The cams atop Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tam show a sea of fog blanketing the Bay Area with both the Carquinez Strait, Napa Valley and the Santa Clara Valley fog filled. This fog distribution, along with the barometers, tells us that there is a strong pressure gradient to Napa, Sacramento, Stockton and towards Bakersfield. So…
Forecast Jargon Decoder: August 3, 2024 A broad streamer of dense low fog blankets the coast and Central Bay, but it shrinks to a narrow steamer that only impacts the Crissy winds. A rainy Gulf of Alaska storm crushes the North Pacific High’s surface NW winds against the west coast. So the NW ocean winds…
The eddy off the Golden Gate is larger than when I issued my forecast, so we are seeing early, faster clearing due to the eddy’s SE winds. Despite that I am sticking to my current forecast due to the strong NW winds out past the Farallon Islands (18 miles west Gate). 7:30 AM forecast: A…
Has it ever offended your sense of aesthetics that on days I forecast, some sites have nice tidy tables for the time slot wind values while other tables are ugly and all chopped up time slots? Here is an example of a tiny vs ugly table. There is a reason for this madness. Some sites…
Forecast Jargon Decoder: Saturday, July 27, 2024 Take a look at today’s forecast, especially the mention of winds just aloft: In most of the USA, the winds ≈ 1000 feet aloft (975 MB) barely impact the summer surface winds, but when those winds are near topography, they become turbulent and sometimes swoop down close enough…
Several decades ago it was impossible to forecast when a counter-clockwise eddy would spin up and change the Bay Area summer coast winds from the prevailing mild NW winds to mild SW winds. For wind sports enthusiast the direction of the coast winds determine which launch sites are windy and where the strongest winds will…
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…
Sun, Jul 21 2024 Forecast looks on track with only the timing of eddies arrival in question. The same pattern continues with solid NW winds from the North Pacific High and strong WNW winds over the Peninsula at ≈ 1000 feet aloft (975 MB). The pressure gradients is split between Sacramento and Stockton but only…
