You could almost cut and paste last week’s Brief for this weekend. We still have a trough of low-pressure running down the east side of Vancouver Island and then down the west side of the Sound and Hood Canal. This gives us high pressure on the east side of the Cascades as well as high pressure offshore. This gives us a weak offshore gradient which is still bringing the smoke from the Bolt Creek fire into the Salish Sea and very poor air quality. You can clearly see the smoke from Bolt Creek in today’s Sat Pic. Currently, at the Meadow Point Marine Weather Station in West Seattle, the reading is 126 and solidly in the red. At least we can finally sort of see across the Sound even with a thick band of haze right on the water.
Today’s surface analysis chart shows the systems described above and then in the Central Pacific we have three relatively weak low-pressure systems with the strongest one being 999mb at about 40N and 155W and going nowhere fast. The reason for this is that the jet stream is still well north and this low is associated with an upper-level cutoff low this is going to stay in the same place for the next couple of days. This will keep our weather pretty much the same for the entire weekend. The next possible change in our weather could happen late Monday or early Tuesday when a weak front will move over the area. Regardless, there won’t be much, if any, rainfall associated with this system.
As you look at the surface forecast charts there isn’t much pressure gradient over the area so you might expect winds to be light and variable. The good news is there will be a light northerly that will build over the day to maybe 10-12 knots. Sunday, not so much.
Much like last weekend, tidal currents won’t be much of a factor.
West Point Currents
0824 Slack
1324 Max Fld .96knts
1612 Slack
1742 Max Ebb .39knts
Sunday
1012 Slack
1412 Max Fld .95knts
1700 Slack
Use plenty of sunblock, and enjoy the 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)