A perfect weekend for a boat show. If you’re seriously interested in a boat, there is no better time to look at one than in the water on a rainy blustery day! We will certainly have that today with winds to 30 knots this afternoon and plenty of rain. The best part is that you won’t be competing with looky-lous. They will just be at the indoor show which this year is huge so the lines won’t be too long to get into the boat you want to see.
So much for the forecast of a wetter and colder winter because of La Niña. OK, it might have been a bit cooler in January but the rain and snow pretty much stayed away. For January we only had 3.09” of rain compared to an average of 5.78” so 2.69 behind for the month. Last year we had 7.06” in January. Looking at today’s charts we are due for a series of systems starting today and continuing through the week, with the potential for a fairly strong system about mid-week. Might be a good time to check on the boat, re-tie the mooring lines, and check the fenders. Then you can go to the Boat Show and check on the deals available on those items!
Today’s surface analysis, sat pic, and Doppler radar all provide quite a dramatic view of what’s happening around here. Gale warnings for the waters and high wind warnings for western Washington. The Coast and the Strait of JdF will see the highest winds with a strong ESE breeze today and tomorrow with a brief respite on Sunday as we will have a strong post-frontal onshore flow down the Strait and strong NW flow offshore. This will keep the winds in the Central and South Sound fairly weak.
The surface analysis chart for today shows a complex pattern of six low-pressure systems with attached cold fronts aimed at the Pacific NW. By tomorrow three of the lows offshore will have combined to form a very large system with a cold front that extends from the north end of Vancouver Island almost to Hawaii. While the center itself will move into SE Alaska, the West Coast will feel the effects of this cold front since there is no ridge of high pressure to fend it off.
The 48-hour surface forecast chart, always one of my favorites, has a Roser Low Index rating of 12 which generally indicates an active week of weather for our area. The other interesting feature is a moderate high-pressure system (1034MB) in the Pacific off of Southern California. Combined with the zonal flow of the Jet Stream, this will keep systems coming into the Pacific NW. No Pineapple Express so the snowpack will continue to build in the Sierra Nevada’s and the Cascade’s.
Have a great weekend, enjoy the boat show and if you do head out on the waters, be sure to check on current conditions. It is that time of year and conditions can change rapidly!
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)