Good Wind, Bad Wind

[Capt. Kermie]

Rather than Hijack Bad Obsesions' weather thread I thought I'd start another. And no, wind does not relate to intestinal gas.
B O sails in the Potomac and mentions the bad weather from the North west on Saturday.
Here in the PNW a Northwest wind indicates fair weather and a south east is bad weather. We usually get sunny weather from the NW off the Pacific. I am curious as to what wind conditions relate to good weather or bad weather in various sailing locales. Post your local weather influences for all to see. Gotta love those Nor'westers here in the PNW.
PNW=Pacific NorthWest

 

[PaulK]

On the East coast, Northwest winds can be strong and gusty, often with lots of puffy, evenly spaced clouds and oscillating breezes (20º or more, sometimes). Nor'easters are what we generally associate with bad weather. The "Perfect Storm" was a Nor'easter. So are many snowstorms around here, as well as the event a couple of weeks ago that came in with 70 knot gusts that blew over five of my neighbor's pine trees, and split 2' diameter oaks and maples in half all over coastal Connecticut. Rains left feet of water in Long Isand basements and schools in Greenwich, CT, were closed for a week because they had no power due to all the downed trees taking wires with them. The usual wind is from the Southwest,. That is why we get upset when they burn dirty coal elsewhere and we end up breathing it here.

 

[MrBee]

Just got back from the Susquehanna flats, upper Chesapeake bay out from Havre de Grace. I believe they were calling for SE light but it was SE medium, 10 - 15 out in front of of the Carpenters point. Was down to do some spring cleaning on our boat when Gary in the slip down from mine, who just launched his Catalina 27 this morning, ask if we wanted to go out with him. I went but the wife decided to stay back and clean some more. We had a great few hours of sailing and when I got back to our boat the wife had done an excellent job of the spring cleaning. An East or northeast would be nice for sailing down the other chanel.

Brian

 

[Stu Jackson]

SF Bay: Summer the High weather parks over the entire coast, bringing "traditonal" afternoon breezes from the west. Wintertime, the high moves south so that low pressure areas can come roaring down from the PNW and slam into us. In many cases the furthest south the lows get is San Jose, a mere 60 miles further south, or halfway to Monterey on the coast. Winter storms are preceded by SW and then S winds, and when the low clears out to the east, the winds come from the NW a day after the fronts pass, and are clear, sparkling and wonderful.

The best weather books for the Bay area are Kimball Livingston's Sailing The Bay, and Harold Gilliam's Weather of the Bay Area (Univ. of California Press).

 

[zeehag]

bad wind in san diego is 90 mph from south as storms from pnw crash into us hard ..lol.....