Meet Eddy! The new weather landlord of the Pacific?

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Gang.

The satellite imagery below from today really shows Eddy in action. If you work the waters north of the Bay Bridge Eddy looks beautiful. But if the Peninsula or the coast is your home Eddy looks malevolent in this imagery.

For many decades the North Pacific High and its NW wind have dominated the Pacific west of California each spring. Sure, the North Pacific High took brief vacations to the south each time a storm arrived but like clockwork would pop back into place bringing NW clearing winds.

This year we have seen the near constant presence of an eddy off the greater Bay Area. Several times the eddy has almost died only to reappear along with southerly winds on the coast and much of the Bay.

Ironically, the eddy is created in large part by the North Pacific High being way too far north for this time of year.

What is causing the eddy? The proximal causes are easy. The North Pacific High has been aligned at an angle to the west coast so its normal NW winds are more NNW + there has been a near constant low pressure just to the north of the Bay Area. (This has also lead to a long period of unusually warm temperatures in the Gorge)

But why is the eddy so early and so persistent? Watch for a future blog on factors involved in the ultimate causation of the North Pacific High's position and the eddy.

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

dvCali · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 1314

Another reason to leave the Bay Area ... the obliteration of San Francisco is now followed by the disappearance of the wind Shocked

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi dvCali,

It is not quite that bad.

In the spring and summer, the North Pacific High often covers more than 2,000,000 square miles. While the eddy is usually under 100 square miles.

So the NPH and the eddy are like an elephant and a flea. Except in recent weeks, the elephant has positioned his rump so that the flea is trapped just off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sooner or later the elephant will stir and the flea will be history... for a while.

The real issue can be seen in the graphic below. As spring turns to summer the North Pacific High's average location shifts northward. So our window of time for strong NW wind on our coast and the Peninsula is shrinking each day the eddy spins.

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

rigatoni · Joined: 25 Feb 1999 Posts: 498

Good ski season is almost always followed by a crappy windsurfing spring. The spring skiing at Squaw right now is pretty awesome (almost 200" of snow still on the ground at mid mountain) so I would recommend making a little lemonade out of the lemons for the time being.

gerritt · Joined: 06 May 1998 Posts: 632 Location: Redwood City, CA

The surf lately has been decent as well. And we had a good winter and early spring on the coast for windsurfing too. Now bring back my NW wind! My arms are tired.

boggsman1 · Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 9120 Location: at a computer

jse · Joined: 17 Apr 1995 Posts: 1460 Location: Maui

Meantime we're in a wind drought in Maui. I've taken advantage of the south swell for some nice glassy surfing.

MalibuGuru · Joined: 11 Nov 1993 Posts: 9300

It's been really good down here

dvCali · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 1314

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

Great wind in the East Bay, hardly ever light enough to windfoil. 5,0 used most.