UPDATED blog: Gorge waves & Nuke and Puke mode.

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Gang,

It is an open secret that the Gorge often has gusty winds. But sometimes the gusts and lulls are so extreme that some sites are in "Blast and Bob" mode or as the Canadians say "Nuke and Puke" mode.

Recently on July 30 and yesterday August 2 we had afternoon Nuke and Puke at many sites while other sites to the east had good days.

So what causes the wind to sometimes be so up and down at one site that people leave wind to drive an hour for quality wind?

The answer is complex but often the issue is big surf or perhaps I should say high surf....very high surf.

This blog has lots of imagery and animations that tell the story:

http://blog.weatherflow.com/private-blog-gorge-winds-yesterday/

The other part of the Nuke and Puke equation is the depth of the marine layer but that story will have to wait.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Isobars,

Yes, yesterday had much wider spread turbulence out east than July 30. July 30 the wave vertical mixing zone was mostly in the Swell to Dougs zone. While yesterday the turbulent wave zone extended past Arlington.

However the cause of the up and down factor was much the same except that the turbulence and wave induced vertical mixing greater and it was at a greater angle to the pressure gradient wind than July 30. This makes for especially crazy gusts since you are sometimes dealing with sudden wind shifts & blasts.

The IW forecasters continue to improve in giving the range of sites where the effect will be strongest. But being able to forecast the exact range and time of these turbulent winds is unlikely.

Side note about turbulence:

In the real world (i.e. not windsurfing/kiting) I forecast wind for a number of high tech. companies with my favorite clients being the Google X secret labs and their projects like Project Loon and the totally crazy Google Moscone Center Blimp project. (these projects are now public so I am not violating my NDA.)

What I dread the most about doing these Google X forecasts is the rare days where there turbulent waves like yesterday aloft.

The wild video below was shot live on one of those turbulent days with wind waves aloft within a few miles of San Francisco Moscone center. In the video you can see sky divers jumping from a blimp with Google Glasses which are delivered live on stage with Sergey Brin in front of thousands of developers.

What you cannot see are my bullets of sweat as I did real time minute-to-minute forecasting for winds and timing of the jump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7TB8b2t3QE

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

merriam2 · Joined: 25 Oct 2013 Posts: 33

Thanks Mike Godsey for your always interesting analysis and on site reports. Also had to laugh at iso's description of a "flea glued to a jackhammer" I think a lot of this is just luck. Sailed Saturday 7/30 at Three Mile in wonderfully consistent wind and swell, heard others weren't so lucky. Yesterday sailed Rufus 3-5:00 in pretty good conditions. Sometimes you win, sometime you lose.
Tom

tm00 · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:27 am Post subject:

Mike
For the past year Lake Champlain (NY side) has also seen the wind acting different. Lots of big gust follow by real long lulls. Saw the same in Hatteras this spring. Joke was to take book along when you headed out sailing. Could read a chapter of two in the lulls.

Tom

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Gang,

One thing in the blog that I mentioned but should have emphasized more...

The crazy gusts, lulls and shifts induced by the sporadic transfer of momentum by the strong wind waves aloft are NOT fixed at certain sites. Rather, as you can see in the satellite animation, the waves slowly march eastward. And if you were at a site at the right time you were in-between wind waves and had a period of decent wind.

For example: if you were at The Wall in the early morning you had a strong 3.2-3.7 session. But if you were there in the mid day to mid afternoon you had a wind wave nearby and the wind was often Nuke and Puke.

I would guess that there were also times at Roos and Arlington when there were decent winds. And in theory 3 mile should have had longer spells with decent winds in-between wind waves.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

I've seen crisp, evenly spaced lenticular clouds in the lee of mountain ranges herald a sustained sine wave wind pattern of 20 minutes sailable, 20 minutes not sailable all afternoon. Although I've long wanted a tee shirt that reads "Clouds Don't Mean $#!+" (for the folks who worry about every little clump of water vapor), sometimes they DO.