As summer begins to wind down towards Labor Day the weather continues to be very interesting. If you just look at the surface charts it looks pretty much like an ideal SeaFair weekend. The devil however is in the upper air charts where we still have that upper level low that has been bedeviling us all summer.
The Saturday morning 500MB chart shows that low with an attached front just off the coast. That will make its way over us late Sunday afternoon and early evening with a bit of rain. Hopefully SeaFair and the Blue Angels will be done by the time it gets here.
Overall for boaters in places other than Lake Washington, it will be a very nice weekend with the one exception being the central Straits of Juan de Fuca especially from Sheringham Point to Hein Bank where this afternoon and into Saturday you could have 35+ knots of westerly. Not unusual . Then as this weak front approaches there really won’t be more than about 15-20 knots in the Straits until late Sunday afternoon and into Mon morning as a the post-frontal westerly fills down the Straits again.
Have a great weekend and for those of you going to Lake Washington remember that all forms of law enforcement with be out there as this has become a great new revenue stream for any municipality bordering the Lake and probable cause means just being out there on the water. You are subject to a compliance inspection and if there are any signs of alcohol you can be asked to take a sobriety test. They will have the mobile sobriety check points set up at various launching ramps, where if you fail you can be booked, taken directly to jail, and your boat impounded. So be smart and have fun just don’t be stupid.
Have a safe and sober weekend!
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)