Not much going on in the way of sailboat racing this weekend which is probably a good thing as once again, there won’t be much wind in the Salish Sea. We’ve had our wind and rain for the week as a weak ridge of high pressure will build behind the very active front that came through on Wednesday. True, this brought some much-needed snow to the mountains and some rain to the lowlands however we are still over 7” behind for the year and if you’re going up to the mountains this weekend, take the rock skies. This ridge will shift slowly to the east bringing an offshore flow once it builds east of the Cascades. This will allow perfect conditions for the Christmas fleet as we move into the holiday and keep approaching systems at bay.
Dec. 13 500MB 
Dec. 13 Surface Analysis 
Dec. 14 Surface Forecast 
Dec. 15 500MB 
Dec. 15 Surface Forecast 
Dec. 17 500MB
Dec. 17 Surface Forecast
The surface analysis chart for today shows an interesting mash-up of systems with weak highs, weak lows, and stalled occluded fronts. One feature of note is that weak low-pressure system off the southern Oregon coast at 1019MB which is really high for a winter low-pressure system. As you go through the surface forecast charts you’ll notice the pressure gradient becomes weak to nonexistent over the next couple of days. Hence my favorite forecast from the NWS: Variable winds becoming light.
The long-range forecast does show another weak system coming in late Tuesday and into Wednesday. This is because the zonal flow of the jet stream will finally start to bend to the south off the West Coast and allow another series of systems to come ashore with yet another strong system coming into California.
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)