An hour ago, I felt it.
The winds picked up and the accompanying air was cooler and moister. My wind chimes started to sound. After a second day with highs around 80F, it was clear that tomorrow would be cooler.
An offshore push or marine push had begun.
Not a particularly strong one, but enough to bring down the high temperatures tomorrow by 5-10F within the interior of western Washington and northwest Oregon.
The visible satellite image late this afternoon showed a tongue of low clouds moving up the Oregon and SW Washington coasts, a sign of the changes to come.
Whether we have warm, dry offshore-directed flow or cooler onshore flow is all about pressure.
The low-level winds tend to flow from high to low pressure.
Friday afternoon at 5 PM the pressure pattern was favorable for warmth, with an area of low pressure, the thermal trough, along the coastal zones of Oregon and Washington (see below, lines of constant pressure...isobars...are shown by the solid lines, color shading shows temperature).
The pressure was higher to the east of the Cascades resulting in easterly (from the east) wind across the Cascades.
A plot of the winds (red numbers are gusts) and air temperature at 8 PM clearly show the onshore winds, with southwesterly winds gusting to 24 mph at Shelton and 22 mph gusts from the northwest at Port Townsend. Cooling westerly winds are also starting to push over the Cascades and show rev up the winds on the eastern slopes of the Cascades.
Admittedly, this is not an extreme or threatening weather event, but it is one of the subtleties of local weather that is enjoyable to experience and understand.
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I was outside tonight around 8:30 in Monroe and noticed the welcome cool breeze coming up the valley from the West. It was quite refreshing after a sultry day for this time of year!
ReplyDeleteThank you... Also explains why the planes are coming into Sea-Tac from the north again after days of coming in from the south...
ReplyDeleteThis period of anomalous warmth has been accompanied by unusually large diurnal temperature ranges at my location in Bellingham. The following days featured diurnal temperature ranges of 30 degrees or more.
ReplyDeleteOn 4/14 the high temp was 65F and the low was 34F (31 degrees); average high and low: 57F and 40F (17 degrees)
On 4/15 the high temp was 70F and the low was 36F (34 degrees); average high and low: 57F and 40F (17 degrees)
On 4/16 the high temp was 74F and the low was 39F (35 degrees); average high and low: 57F and 40F (17 degrees)
On 4/17 the high temp was 75F and the low was 41F (34 degrees); average high and low: 57F and 40F (17 degrees)
On 4/18 the high temp was 73F and the low was 42F (31 degrees); average high and low: 57F and 40F (17 degrees)
On 4/20 the high temp was 69F and the low was 39F (30 degrees); average high and low: 58F and 40F (18 degrees)