SF Bay - Is the NW flow ever coming back?

ShreddinEd · Joined: 27 Mar 1994 Posts: 172

Just curious.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1400

Burned any windsurfers at the beach as an offering yet?

ShreddinEd · Joined: 27 Mar 1994 Posts: 172

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1400

No, not I. I have actually been having fun sailing these light Southwest winds with a SUPsail. When the Northwest winds do return, I will take them, but I am not missing sailing time because they are not here as yet.

Plus burning boards creates sooty smoke and leaves an ugly residue that is difficult to clean up. Certainly not a fire one would want to roast marshmallows over.

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Guys,

Yes, it sure has been a long while without NW flow. The pattern we have seen in recent weeks and you see today in the imagery below finally ends, for a while, tonight.

The reason the NW flow has been so weak is that the North Pacific High has spent most of the summer angled into the NE. This angle pulls the NPH away from the Northern California coast south of Cape Mendocino so the ocean winds are N to NNE as you see in the image. This in turn favors the formation of the eddy you see just west of the Bay Area.

Starting tomorrow each passing day the NW flow improves slightly peaking Friday. This will not be a major NW wind event but rather just enough to end the SW eddy flow and to redirect the wind through the NW facing gaps and venturi zones. This means that the Waddell, Crissy, Coyote & 3rd winds improve a bit and the marine layer clouds clear earlier.

I am not forecasting today so all of this is just an educated guesscast.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com

spanker_jeep · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:58 pm Post subject:

Seems like the end of the summer sailing season. Comes early or late. This year was early. End of July!

dlfrosch · Joined: 11 Jul 2010 Posts: 10 Location: Redwood City

Coyote was great yesterday and looks promising again today

ShreddinEd · Joined: 27 Mar 1994 Posts: 172

Yeah, it looks like the bay finally turned on again. I thought we were just in the mid-summer doldrums with sw flow where Sherman goes off. That's usually done by mid-late August, but maybe you're right, maybe the season is winding down.