Prevailing Wind Patterns in the Puget Sound



Prevailing Wind Patterns in the Puget Sound

What I Know:

• A Southerly is wind blowing from the South to the North. A Northerly is wind blowing from the North to the South.

• It is very difficult to motor a sailboat against the wind and go fast. In other words, if there isn’t a strong wind and you are motoring with a small motor, having the wind go with you instead of against you is helpful.

• This winter I have experienced a Southerly 3 times while sailing and never a Northerly.

What I Want to Know:

• What are high and low pressure systems? What does the pressure measure?

• How do high and low pressure systems relate to the wind direction/Northerly and Southerly?

• What do the systems look like/manifest as in terms of weather that we experience?

What I Know After Research:

Wind patterns in the Puget Sound are a Southerly (wind blowing from South to North) low pressure system (wind moving counter clockwise) which commonly occurs in the winter and a Northerly (wind blowing from North to South) high pressure system (wind moving clockwise) in the summer. There are common variations of these general patterns explained below:

Winter:

One of the most common wind patterns in the winter is a Southerly with wind moving in a low pressure system from Alaska. The wind is strong at sea but breaks up over land decreasing in strength.

Another common winter wind pattern is a Southerly, low pressure system that comes from the central pacific and moves northeast. This system can cause extreme wind and weather along the coast and has resulted in the largest storms in NW record.

A less common winter pattern that happens usually a few times each winter is a Northerly, high pressure system (wind blowing clockwise) that comes from Eastern Washington causing strong winds through the passes into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Summer:

The summer prevailing wind pattern is a Northerly, high pressure system that sits off the coast of WA, OR and CA resulting in mild Northerlies and moderate Westerlies (wind moving from the West to the East) in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This pattern protects the coast from harsh weather in the summer. This often gives us clear skies with wind in the Puget Sound.

The wind patterns were interesting for me to research because I have started sailboat racing this fall. During racing there is all sorts of talk of grip files (see this site: ww.atmos.washington.edu/mm5rt) and wind points. Making a sailboat go fast depends on the direction and speed of the wind so this information is crucial for getting from point a to point b and would have been necessary to know in Columbus’ voyages to travel efficiently and safely. For example, this summer I sailed to California in August and it is important for sailors to head down the coast by the beginning of September when the wind patterns change from the Northerly summer wind pattern which provides mostly moderate down wind sailing to the winter pattern of Southerlies which means more extreme weather and sailing upwind (sailing down wind is much easier on the boat and your body than sailing upwind for 6-8 days, trust me!).

Sources:

Finlayson, D. “Puget Sound Waves”. January 6, 2010.

Other interesting internet resources related to Puget Sound Wind Patterns:

University of Washington interactive daily weather maps:

Go to MM5-NAM at the top of the page, click on 36km and pick the first “LOOP”. This gives you a sequenced daily wind and weather pattern imaging by the hour. Very useful for sailboat racing and interesting to see the different wind patterns coming onto the coast.

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