By Mike Godsey

Today’s mild winds in the El Sargentoto Los Barriles corridor are due to a Cut-Off upper low in the upper-level winds that circulate around the world from mostly west to mostly east.

Normally these winds loop North and south as they travel steering the surface weather systems and surface winds.

Occasionally one of the southward-extending loops pinches off and becomes a separate mass of counterclockwise rotating wind. This forms what is called a Cut-off low since it is cut off from the general flow of upper air going from west to east.

Today’s Cut-off low is centered just west of the USA-Baja border. As you can see in this image this has bumped the North Pacific High westward and induced a low-pressure area over New Mexico and Baja Norte. All of which has blocked our northerly surface winds and left us with our mild local sea breezes. BUT… even those winds will be wimpy due to the clouds from the SW upper-level winds from the Cut-Off upper low.

Without those clouds this could be a good day for paragliding as the east wind rises over the El Sargento bluffs.