Today will be the warmest day of the weekend, with Saturday being slightly cooler and Sunday being substantially cooler. Then it will return to pretty ideal Pacific NW weather with highs in the mid 70’s until Thursday when we might get some drizzle. It’s still so much better than the rest of the country.
We still have a weak Pacific High(1029MB) trying to find its summer identity. Currently centered south and west of a “normal” position. Probably because of that low (991MB) in the Gulf of Alaska with its attached frontal system, that will drag over us on Saturday. The post-frontal flow down the Straits late Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening will probably generate gale warnings for the Central and Eastern Straits. This will ease by mid-morning Sunday.
The other charts of interest this weekend are the upper level or 500MB charts. Today’s chart shows a meridional flow with the jet stream coming ashore in SE Alaska which is why we are a bit warmer than normal. This will change by Sunday as the flow becomes more zonal and the jet stream comes ashore over the Olympic Peninsula bringing cooler temps with it.
Winds over the rest of the Sound will be light with the potential for some northerly coming down the Sound late Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Sunday will see some onshore flow coming through the Chehalis Gap, bringing a southerly flow into the South and Central Sound.
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)