It is certainly like an almost normal April with periods of rain, more snow in the mountains, some sunshine almost immediately followed by cooler cloudy weather and of course, more rain. At least our rainfall deficit should drop from more than three inches to less than two inches.
Today’s charts and satellite picture provide a very good visual as to why all of this is happening. The front that came through yesterday has left us with a nice ridge of high-pressure that will drift to the east over the course of the day as another front takes aim at the Pacific Northwest. This will give us a nice westerly flow down the Straits with the usual 15-20 knots of westerly from The Race over towards Whidbey Island. The inland waters will feature light and variable winds until early Saturday morning when a southerly flow will begin to develop. By mid-morning Saturday we can expect 15-20-knots of southerly over the central Sound, perfect for PSSC, just be ready. By mid-day Saturday this could build to 25 knots of southerly. This will coincide with frontal passage.
April 12 500MB 
April 12 Surface Analysis 
April 13 Surface Forecast 
April 14 Surface Forecast 
April 16 Surface Forecast
Around mid-afternoon, a strong post-frontal flow will begin to develop with strong westerlies (small-craft advisories in the central and east Straits) coming down the Straits which will meet up with a strong southerly flow coming up the Sound. This will, in turn, cause a very normal Puget Sound Convergence Zone to develop from Edmonds to Marysville. The predominately southerly flow, which will stay in place for most of the day over Central Sound, will shift to the southwest by late afternoon.
The post-frontal onshore flow will create light and variable winds for the central Sound on Sunday as the Olympics will act as a block to this flow. Early Monday morning the wind along the coast will become a pre-frontal southeasterly as another front approaches the coast with, wait for it, more rain. At our gardens are smiling.
We’ll have a special Southern Straits update on this coming Thursday afternoon.
Have a great 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)