Western Skies

Saturday, June 18, 2016

What did the rest of May and June bring? Mostly boredom!

Absolutely nothing noteworthy. Nada, Zilch. The next few months? Perhaps maybe some fog, off the ocean.

Fog is our (=those who live close to the Ca coast) natural air conditioner, it sweeps in overnite, the morning is overcast, it burns off to the ocean by midday. The daily weather report becomes a mantra = 'low clouds and fog extending inland overnite, receding to the coast by midday, temps? 60 at the coast, 70-80 around the bay, 90's inland'.

I'd like to be well paid for being so repetitive!

By mid-afternoon, it can surge in again from the coast.

On Sun, May 29, i went to Marin headlands, and that was exactly what happened, it surged in again at mid-afternoon.

Sooooo.... let's think 'coastal fog' whaddaya say?

Whoaa!!Not so fast..........!!

Recent days, June 12 or so, have brought some interesting things to the Bay area - two systems ( a low and i high) have rubbed up against each other, and made 'looking up' a lot more interesting :-)

To Quote the NWS = http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MTR&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1

-----------------

441 PM PDT WED JUN 15 2016

"DISCUSSION...as of 1:55 PM PDT Wednesday...Under partly cloudy

skies, area temperatures are running cooler than yesterday at this

time at most locations with most readings in the 60s. Moderate to

strong west winds are also occurring with many airports reporting

gusts from 25 to 35 mph. The gusty west winds will diminish late

tonight. Meanwhile, clouds are increasing from the north as a

frontal system approaches northern california.

The upper level low will drop southward just off of the Pacific

Northwest Coast tonight. As this occurs, a frontal boundary will

move through much of Northern California bringing shower chances

to at least the northern half of the district late tonight and

Thursday. Rain is forecast to begin in the far North Bay after

midnight and spread south into the San Francisco area by late

morning/early afternoon.

---------------------

Rain? In June??

This I've gotta see to believe!

At Wed. 7:30PM? Barely a cloud in the sky. Thursday brought lots of nice skies though.

There was a nice sunrise in there. It was cinematic - changed constantly, minute by minute.

Here's about 1 hrs. worth out my north facing windows:

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?! - I'll be back!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

This El Nino was a bust!

Winter went out with a whimper, no bangs to be had here.

3/14 - 19 - like summer without the fog.

Sunday 3/20 things begin to change.......

It looks like it's all heading north of me, just brushing Nor. Cal. a wee bit.

By 11AM a few drops, enough to make the street wet.

3PM - light showers, very bright skies, not much of a cloud layer, not much of a 'storm'.

3/22

My open window is whistling at me - i used to live in an apt on the 4th floor of a marvelous apt. building in SF, 12th Ave, just north of GG Park, never modernized ( thankfully) i could open the kitchen ( west facing window) and the living room window ( east facing ) and almost fly a kite in the apt. It had the original phone, a bread board pull-out, an ironing board, and pull-out seats and kitchen table. Makes big use of small spaces.

This wind is almost as nice. It shakes the small palm plant in my window, i can feel it on my cheeks. I would love to be back in that apt., but SF real estate has gone *whacko* the last 15 years. I'll bet the apt i paid 550$ for is now worth close to 2K$.

March 22 - Conditions were ripe for rainbows:

Rainbows over San Francisco

Douglas Zimmerman Updated 10:44 am, Tuesday, March 22,

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rainbow-over-San-Francisco-6949484.php

In the course of doing some rainbow research, i came across this:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/09/17/circular_rainbow_rare_optic_effect_seen_from_the_air.html

Wowee-Zowie!!

April 9-10 Weekend

This might well be winter's last gasp.

Mucho rain, mostly at nite, i wake up at mid night Saturday for a quick trip to the bathroom, and outside my window? Cats, dogs, (and other small mammals) comin' down. The New Yorker magazine sells a nice umbrella, that is cats and dogs :-)

4/21

An interesting day for clouds:

We're 'sposed to get some rain tonite, tommorow, but nothing to get excited about, showers is about it, probably to move south of me by early PM. Thru the night, some nice rain. By 7 AM friday, it looks like it's over, but looks can be deceiving - By 8:30, skies have turned ugly, i get rained on, on the the way to work. But that's it - the skies are filled with huge beautifully puffy cumulus. There are long range forecasts for another round like this one, middle of next week.

4/25 - some serious wind, 'knock me over even though i walk with a cane' wind.

5/5 - In the last 10 days, a few systems have come ashore, but not much rain where i am, close to the coast.