Have you ever wondered why Baja’s Sea of Cortez only has weak southerly winds in the Summer while
the rest of North America is having its peak kiting, winging and windsurfing season? And why does the Sea of Cortez have its strongest winds in the winter when the rest of North America only has sporadic and seldom useful chilly winter storm winds.
One reason is that Baja’s East Cape has a bunch of wind machines that impact its winter winds. Any one of these wind machines can produce at least winging winds and certain combos of the wind machine can even challenge the high-wind junkies of the Columbia River Gorge.
Late October saw an uncommon combo of several of these wind machines that brought upper-teens to 20 winds to the La Ventana campground.
This first model animation shows several of these wind machines in action.
Notice the isobar’s white lines representing the pressure gradient from high-pressure areas towards lower pressure south of Baja.
Note the lobe of the North Pacific High west of Baja and the large high-pressure over the western USA. Watch how the isobars from these 2 wind machines merge to stack isobars down the length of the Sea of Cortez.
The winds from these 2 wind machines blow straight down the Sea of Cortez but friction along the rugged Sea of Cortez shoreline weakens the beach winds for most of the coast.
But this second graphic shows how heating in the large Los Planes Valley inland of La Ventana can accelerate the El Norte winds while curving them inland so they reach the beach.