Wicked Winds from the East

2014-10-23 00:17:00.000 – Kaitlyn O`Brien, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

The big discussion tonight is wind! It has certainly ramped up throughout the day and we previously observed a sustained easterly wind speed of 68mph, with gusts reaching 76mph earlier this evening. Since this time, winds have subsided a bit to 56mph sustained with gusts up to 65mph.

Perhaps you are wondering how frequently this occurs. After some quick number crunching of our records over the past 80+ years, it was calculated that for observed hourly average wind direction, we’ve seen easterly winds in excess of 55mph about 0.3% of the time. While that’s not very often over the long term, on an annual basis we see winds in excess of 55mph a few times each year.However, winds from the east just do not last for a very long period of time and will eventually shift to the dominant wind directions we typically observe (W-NW).

Looking ahead at the next few days, this area of low pressure will gradually continue its northeasterly track, skirting the coast and bringing precipitation to the region. Winds on the higher summits are expected to steadily decrease throughout the next 36 hours, but onshore flow will keep summits socked in the clouds with mixed precipitation falling.

Kaitlyn O`Brien, Weather Observer/Education Specialist