Finally, an almost normal weekend and with that we’ll be able to welcome the Packers to town with a what should be a mixed bag of rain and wind in a typical post frontal situation. There will even be some snow in the mountains.
For Saturday you can see that an occluded front is approaching the coast with a cold front right behind it and that combination is going to be enough to push that 1032mb high that’s been guarding the Pacific Northwest off to the southeast. The only major event for this weekend is the Queen City Yacht Club First of the Season Predicted Log Race which happens Saturday on Lake Washington and you can see from the UofW MM5 chart winds will be light and variable, in other words perfect. Just be sure to check the tidal current for Kirkland……kidding.
Click on any image to enlarge and open slide show.
For Seahawk Sunday you can see the cold front moving onshore and bringing with it wind and rain. Since the front is moving to the northeast you can expect more wind in the central Straits and San Juan Islands with the strongest wind being very early in the morning. If you’re out cruising and have anchored out on Saturday night, plan accordingly.
The Tuesday surface chart shows that once again we will have another fairly strong high pressure system (1035mb) building over the Pacific Northwest which is just in time to protect the start of the Big Seattle International Boat Show. So for the first weekend of the Show the weather should be just about perfect. This is especially important since barring some totally unforeseen disaster; the Seahawks will be playing in the Super Bowl on Feb 1st which means the Show will close on Saturday Jan 31st instead of Sunday Feb 1st.
I think this also bodes well for the Big Winter Rendezvous Part Duex over in Poulsbo the weekend of Feb 6, 7, and 8. They are almost out of slips over there so if you’re on the fence about going, I’d jump on the computer and go to www.NWYachting.com to make your reservations right now. How can you miss with free moorage and free bottle of wine? I was going to do a special weather briefing but then again I don’t think anybody who’s going to that is going to worry much about the weather.
I have also attached a separate file on the weather summary for 2014 as compiled by my friend Ted Buehner and his team at the National Weather Service Office at Sand Point. It’s not that long and it does point out what we’ve been saying for some time and that was that 2014 was way wetter and way warmer than normal.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at the Boat Show.
