Another wild week of weather in the Pacific NW and the Southern Straits Race is off to a great start with a 20-knots of easterly wind for a downwind ride to first marks. Plus, Environment Canada has issued a Waterspout Warning for the Strait Of Georgia. I guess that when you’ve had rain, snow, hail, sunshine, and freezing temps you might as well add a waterspout into the overall equation!
There are a multiplicity of reasons for all this cool unstable weather, just take a look at today’s surface analysis chart, sat pic, and 500MB chart. We’ve had a weak surface low-pressure system over the area this entire week with a stalled occluded front just to the north and slightly to the east as well as cold upper air low-pressure system centered just north of Vancouver Island. The jet stream is primarily zonal and coming ashore between San Fran and LA. Today’s sat pic shows the cool, unstable air off our coast and the next frontal system that will arrive Sunday evening. This pattern will continue to bring upper-level lows into the area this coming week, keep temps on the cool side, and the weather challenging.
For sailing on the Sound this weekend this instability will create interesting conditions. In the morning, the central and south Sound can expect light conditions, while Admiralty inlet and the north Sound will see 10-15 knots of north-northwesterly. The Strait of JdF will have variable wind of 5-15 knots. Onshore flow will develop through the Chehalis Gap by early afternoon and this will create a building S/SW breeze over the south Sound that will gradually make it to the central Sound by mid-afternoon. The interesting part will be that just after the flow develops in the Chehalis Gap it will also start to come down the Strait of JdF and will have to meet somewhere between Alki and Edmonds.
Sunday will be even more interesting as the wind in the Straits will be a pre-frontal SE of 15-20 knots while the wind in the central and South Sound will light and variable for most of the day.
Wherever you’re sailing, 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)