May 07, 2016

Vigorous Onshore Marine Push and Good News for Mothers

Tonight, the passage of a weak front is resulting in a strong inland surge of marine air.  What we call a northerly onshore push.

The visible satellite image at 7 PM Saturday shows a narrow, but weak, front moving into western Washington.  There is virtually no precipitation with this feature.  But it is strong enough to cause cool marine air to push inland, particularly in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where it is REALLY blowing right now.


For example, take a look at the maximum hourly gusts at Smith Island, located over the eastern side of the Strait.  WOW...gusts to 47 knots (54 mph)!


The UW WRF model has been forecasting the marine surge--here is the predicted gusts for 8 PM Saturday.   Red area is strongest winds--50 knot gusts over the eastern Strait.


And now the good news for all mothers.  Sunday really won't be bad at all.  A few sprinklers in the AM at most--particularly over central Puget Sound (where a weak convergence zone will be).  Low clouds in the morning, but plenty of breaks in the afternoon, particularly away from the central Sound.  Highs around 63-65F.    Plenty good enough to enjoy a nice walk with Mom at some park to admire the flowers.  Mom's like that kind of thing.  Plus flowers, cards, and chocolates.

4 comments:

  1. It started to rain in Bellingham, just as we were sitting down for Mother's Day dinner on the deck 6:30ish.
    Had to retreat into the dinning room. It was brief but enough to dampen the deck and the road out front.

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  2. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-context-fort-mcmurray-wildfire-20311

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  3. Interesting that the forecast called for much fairer weather than actually occurred. Here in central Seattle we had quite breezy and cool weather all day followed by substantially colder and very heavy rain showers in the evening about 9pm!

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