It’s going to be light!
It’s that feast or famine time of the year for sailboat racing in Putrid Sound. Way too much wind last weekend and not nearly enough this weekend, well at least on Saturday.
The good news is that it is going to be probably the nicest weekend so far this year with the high temp near 70F on both days. The price we’ll pay for this spring break will be light, as in very light, breeze on Saturday with a reasonable southerly filling in on Sunday.
Today’s sat pic, and surface analysis chart show a clear area over the Salish Sea with an impressive low offshore and high pressure inland. This will result in an offshore breeze today however as a ridge builds over the area on Saturday, the pressure gradient will diminish and we’ll be left with light air. This ridge will continue to deflect storms to the north as the jet stream moves way north and comes ashore in BC. We will also have an upper-level high-pressure system centered over the area which will keep temps on the mild side.
We will continue to have a relatively mild week with the next chance of rain occurring towards the end of the week. Even then it won’t amount to much in the old rain gauge.
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)