This is going to be a great weekend with clear skies and warming temperatures. Then get ready for this, there will be plenty of wind on the Central Sound from Pt No Pt to Tacoma. Like 15-25 knots of NNW breeze on Saturday and 15-20 knots of NNW on Sunday. This will be the first time this year we’ll be able to sail in shorts and t’s. Not bad, just remember the Sound is still very cool and if you go in, hypothermia is still a very real possibility. As we say at the Safety at Sea Seminars, “It’s not a question of when you put your life jacket on, it’s a just a question of when you can take it off.”
The reason for this great weather can be seen on today’s surface analysis chart and sat pic. We have a weak high-pressure system(1026MB) off the coast and a weak trough of low pressure on the other side of the Cascades. This will create onshore flow today and nice northerlies to develop over the inland waters. In today’s Sat Pic you can see the leading edge of the next frontal system that’s attached to a weak (1013MB) low-pressure system at 46N 145W. You should also note that this system is attached to weak upper-level cut-off low pressure on the 500MB Charts. Since it is cut off from the jet stream not much is there to push this system around and it will gradually just drift to our coast.
Starting tomorrow a stronger high-pressure system will develop in Eastern Washington and Eastern BC with a thermal trough of low-pressure developing along the coast. This will bring offshore flow to the area and the warmest temperatures of the year. It’s not a heat dome like last year and what is currently over the central US setting a plethora of record high-temperature readings. Instead, by late Monday and early Tuesday, another weak high-pressure system will build in the Pacific and that low mentioned above will drift over us, and behind that onshore flow will bring Mother Nature’s air conditioning to the Salish Sea.
It does remain to see if the high developing at 40N 150W will become our dominating Pacific High and set up to provide a fast ride to Hawaii for the Pacific Cuppers and the Vic-Maui. We will just keep watching.
Have a great weekend, use that sunblock, and stay safe.
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)