WEATHER BRIEFING FOR PADDLE PLANNING

Current Weather Conditions

Present conditions inside the bay: http://ports-infohub.nos.noaa.gov/ports/hubs/san_francisco_bay/

Wind Reports mostly inside San Francisco Bay:

Wind flow on San Francisco Bay: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/

Wind Gradient: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/products/SFO24HCHG

Radar for Current Rainfall:

Visible Satellite Bay Area:

Infared Eastern Pacific:

Depth of fog:Fog info satellite: for depth of the fog Daytime: http://orbit35i.nesdis.noaa.gov/arad/fpdt/ltstfog/LTSTFGDPSW.GIF

Nighttime fog map: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/2km/Hanford/FOG2HNX.GIF

Current Pacific Ocean Data

Anaylsis (subtract 7 hours to get local time from April until Oct PDT then from Oct. until April PST subtract 8 hours: http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/ftp/pub/data/mpc/rp1_18z.gif

Buoy summary,updated every 15 minutes: http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/nocal.html

Global view; click on any area for a close-up--good to see what's coming towards us: http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/doc/ers_ssmi_global.html

Profiler and surface winds for S. F. Bay Region: http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/profiler/map/cccoast.html

Near Real time current Velocity maps for the bay and the nearby Pacific outside the Golden Gate: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/SFPORTS/vec_map/vec_map.html

Live Camera Views

San Francisco Bay, Emeryville looking West: http://www.sybase.com/Interact/websights_lg.html

Monterey wharf: http://www.montereywharf.com/wharfcam/

Mendocino: http://www.mcn.org/c/weather/

Big Sur from Nepenthe: http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/images/fullsize.jpg

Morro Bay: http://www.slocam.com/CAM1/index.html

Sugar Pine Point State Park Lake Tahoe: http://www.ceres.ca.gov/sierradsp/index.html

Donner Summit: http://www.magnifeye.com/

Half dome Yosemite: http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/index.htm

Forecasted Weather Conditions

The current marine forecast which is issued every 6 hours-3am, 9am, 3pm and 9 pm: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/afos/SFO/CWF/SFOCWFSFO look at the bottom of page for extended forcast

Current weather forecast discussion Updated every 6 hours-3am, 9am, 3pm and 9pm. :

All of Calif.: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/ca/discussion.html

Bay Area only: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/afos/SFO/AFD/SFOAFDMTR

alternate: http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/text/wxascii/forecasts/FXUS66.KMTR

glossary: http://www.nws.mbay.net/afd-guide.html

10 day graph showing surface conditions for San Francisco, not specifically accurate but excellent for trends: http://grads.iges.org/pix/sfomrf3.gif

5 day surfcast:http://www.boardz.com/html/surfcast.cfm

Peak wave period and direction, subtract 7 hours for local time PST:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Eureka/marine/waveloops/nww3_pLoop_np.html

Swell forecast discussion: go to "powertools" for detailed swell forecasting graphics:
http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/forecast/forecast/current.shtml

Winds for Central Coast: http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/profiler/map/loopcc.html

36 hour Central Calif Coast Wind Forecast:
http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/links/ccamm5.html

Click on the area you're interested in, and then click on "Sailcast" and "Windcast". http://www.intellicast.com/Sail/World/UnitedStates/Southwest/California/

Wind forecasting every 6 hours for 5 days: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Eureka/marine/waveloops/nww3_wsLoop_np.html

Surf forecasting 5 day: Every 6 hours Significant Wave Height, subtract 7 hours for local time PST: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Eureka/marine/waveloops/nww3_hLoop_np.html

Forecasting:
3 day http://cdip.ucsd.edu/elnino_htmls/homepage.shtml

Ocean Conditions forecasting: click on "NGP" under "East Pac." http://152.80.49.210/PUBLIC/WXMAP/GLOBAL/

10 day temperatures: http://grads.iges.org/pix/temp1.html

10 day precipation: http://grads.iges.org/pix/prec1.html

10 day sea level pressure guide; the closer the lines, the higher the wind. Don't forget to subtract 7 hours for local time. "Valid 0z June 4" minus 7 hours = 1700 June 3 = 5 pm San Francisco time:
http://weather.unisys.com/mrf/mrf_pres_9panel.html

Tides and current forecast for US west coast North to South: http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/sites_uswest.html

Forecasted Moon Phases:
http://www.googol.com/moon/

7 day trend--pick your city: click here

For 30 day outlook: click here

Movie; Blue shades show air that is subsiding, which means usually stable and warming air. Brighter blue can mean windy conditions. Pink shades indicate rising or unstable air. Brighter pink shading indicates possible windy conditions. Click on frame to stop movie: http://grads.iges.org/pix/movie.html

Past Weather History

Past weather info, click on buoy then go to weather history, for example San Francisco buoy:

Weather for faraway places

Baja

For satellite view, click on "Bay Area Visible" http://www.nws.mbay.net/satl.html

Wind

Inside the bay:

Outside the bay: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/us_wind.gif

Subtract 7 hours from 00 Z 6-13-00 to get local time=5pm 6-12-00 PST
Subtract 7 hours from 06Z 6-13-00 = 11pm 6-12-00 PST
Subtract 7 hours from 12Z 6-13-00 = 5 AM 6-13-00 PST
Subtract 7 hours from 18Z 6-13-00 = 11 am 6-13-00 PST

This website recently doubled its database, thereby increasing its accuracy. Use this website for reversecasting if good sailing(high winds)are indicated this means poor sea kayaking due to high winds.

Fog

Click on GOES-10 Fog/Stratus Products: http://www.nws.mbay.net/satl.html

Surf

Wave energy can travel 5,000-7,000 miles to reach our south shores. Often, waves that travel this far catch up and merge with each other. Hence, you can be on a beach and see a set of 3-6 particularly large ocean waves and then a long, relatively calm period of 10-25 minutes before another large set. One way to identify this swell is to count the seconds between breaking waves; generally the longer the interval, the farther the wave has traveled. Buoy reports on the bouy summary page are plotted every 15 minutes, or click on the buoy to see an hourly history.

Also shown are swell heights, with time period between waves measured in seconds. Any wave interval above 15 seconds may indicate a wave came a long way. Above 20 seconds, be extremely vigilant for sudden large waves or even rogue waves. Small period/higher frequency waves are created by local winds or wind waves. Large period/low frequency waves are swells. These waves are some of the greatest hazards sea kayakers face.

Swell models Are you going out the gate? Make sure you check the swells! http://cdip.ucsd.edu/models/gg.gif

Up and down the coast; click on the area you are going to: http://cdip.ucsd.edu/cdip_htmls/models.shtml

http://152.80.49.210/PUBLIC/WAM/all_npac.html

S

You can sign up to be notified by e-mail when Northern California's surf is up and this service is free;
http://www.surfcheck.com/~surfcheck/cgi-bin/start/surfalrm.htm

Tides and Currents

Moon Phases

Definitions of moon phases:
http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/astronomical.shtml

Lunar eclipse computer:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html

Upwelling:

For info:
ftp://upwell.pfeg.noaa.gov/outgoing/upwell/monthly/upindex.mon

Positive values mean upwelling is taking place. Negative values mean upwelling is not taking place.

39N 125W is offshore from Pt. Arena

36N 122W is offshore from Lopez Point, which is near Big Sur

Sea Surface Water Temperatures

For California coast:
http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/californ.c.gif

For Washington and Oregon:
http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/washngtn.c.gif

For Baja:
http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/gulfcalf.c.gif

For converting Temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit use theWeather Calculator: http://www.nws.mbay.net/wxcalc/wxcalc8.html:

Long Term Planning:

Forecasts are not meant to be a guarantee of what the weather will do. I think the best way to use a forecast is to look at the whole picture. Are the sea conditions deteriorating or improving? Is the surf increasing or decreasing? Are the low clouds and fog thinning or getting thicker? Are storms in faraway places spinning towards us to send swells that will reach our coast? The more informed you are, the less chance of being surprised.

This infomation is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a tremendous amount of infomation available that is not represented here.

If you have further questions or need more info, I may be able to help--just e-me!

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copyright Storm Steiger 2000

kayakers have become weatherwise since this page was created June 6, 2000