What a long, strange week it’s been! And it’s not going to get much better over the weekend with the wind over the Salish Sea being uncharacteristically light. I just love it when the marine forecaster says variable winds becoming light. Not a good sign for sailors, a great sign for powerboaters.
28 June 500MB 
28 June Surf Analy 
29 June Surface Forecast 
30 June 500MB 
30 June Surface Forecast 
2 July Surface Forecast
The surface charts tell the story with two troughs of low pressure bracketing a weak ridge of high pressure that is right over the Salish Sea. The Pacific High is abnormally elongated to the north and south and is not very strong at 1030MB. By tomorrow the pressure gradient will ease over the Pacific Northwest and that offshore trough of low pressure will become a very weak (1017MB) system that simply won’t last very long. The Pacific High will continue to follow this strange pattern of trying to stabilize and then weakening again this time to 1026MB. On Sunday, which will probably be the nicest day of the weekend, there will be almost no gradient over the Salish Sea. The Pacific High will be pushed very far to the south, like 34N at 140W. However, there is hope as a stronger high is now starting to form in the Gulf Alaska. The TransPac teams are just really glad they’re not starting now. And then there’s the first Tropical storm of the season, Alvin, which will be putting a brief but somewhat disruptive appearance.
We’ll have a weak upper level low over the area for the weekend which will occasionally cause some light rain today and tomorrow.
Then again, it is the Pacific NW. Have a great weekend and get out on the water.
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)