¡Buenos dias! Wow! Yesterday’s thermal blew my 16-20 mph forecast out of the water, as 10 minute sustained winds at the campground peaked at 24 mph. Satellite passes yesterday around noon measured background wind speeds coming into the channel of only 10 knots, so it was indeed a super thermal! It’ll be interesting to see if we continue to get very strong thermals this spring, as the desert is extremely dry this year and heats up very efficiently as compared to greener years. Model forecasts are all in excellent agreement that today will be a very different day, as surface low pressure over southwestern Arizona creates very light background flow over BCS, with only light onshore breezes expected here. The on/off button will switch back on tomorrow, as model forecasts show a ridge of high pressure building into the Baja Peninsula from the eastern Pacific, with a new surge of north background flow reaching our area. The surface ridge will oscillate north and south a bit over the next week, with winds increasing as it moves north and decreasing as it moves south closer to us. Some thin, high clouds will stream in from time to time this week, but at this point it looks like they shouldn’t be much of a factor. Tuesday looks to be the windiest day, with all of the model forecasts showing a tight surface pressure gradient over BCS, and with sunny skies expected, we could see one of the windiest days of the season. Winds may decrease on Thursday as the ridge moves closer to us and the background flow weakens, but long-range models show more solid north flow on the way again by next Friday.
Today…Mostly sunny. East wind 8-10 mph.
Sunday…Sunny. North wind 20-24 mph.
Monday…Mostly sunny. North wind 18-22 mph.
Tuesday…Sunny. North wind 22-26 mph.
Wednesday…Sunny. North wind 18-22 mph.
Thursday…Mostly sunny. Northeast wind 14-16 mph.
Friday…Sunny. North wind 20-24 mph.