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Thursday, October 4, 2018

Land Breeze Clouds

This morning I was at an early meeting at the UW, looking out towards the West and I saw a line of low-level clouds and I recognized their origin.... clouds over the Sound produced by converging land breezes from both shores.

Here is a satellite image this AM over northern Puget Sound...you see the line of clouds?


And there was an even better line in the center of the Strait of Georgia (see below)


This lines were produced by land breezes, the movement of air form land to water, which occur when land is cooler than adjacent water surfaces.


The low temperatures this morning (below) shows temperatures dropping into the 30sF over Vancouver Island and southern BC, while the water temperatures were around 50F, and the a number of the marine stations reported mid to upper 40s.  As as result,  land breezes formed on both shores and then collided over the central Strait of Georgia, forcing rising motion and clouds.


This figures illustrates what is happening:
A similar, but weaker, situation occurred over northern Puget Sound, with low 40s over land and low 50s over water.

No land breeze clouds tomorrow...a wet weather system is approaching!

from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog https://ift.tt/2PjTthW

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