That enfante terrible now dawdles over the coastal waters of California and northern Baja today, adding some water to its central system as seen here from IPS Meteostar. Note, too, a scruff of Stratocumulus clouds racing northwestward in the Gulf of Baja abouit the latitude of the border between north and south Baja. This is good. Still, this is a marginal storm as it trucks through on Sunday evening and I will be happy if we get a quarter of an inch. Mods don’t think rain will get here until the upper center is upon us later Sunday. Here is the whole map forecast sequence showing temperatures and winds aloft at 500 mb from the U of Washington unranked Huskies who play #12 Baylor in the Alamo Bowl –what a horrible bowl game that is for Baylor–on Dec 29th. Still, as a spin off myself here into the SW like all of our lows this year, but from the U of WA, I will be rooting, of course, for the “company team” along with my friends and former grad students with whom I worked. BTW, these are pretty maps with lots of color as you will see.
You will also notice in this 4 day series of forecast maps for 500 mb that yet ANOTHER low drops into the Yuma area replacing the current one that begins to move toward us later today. That new low develops via the back door from Colorado and nests over Yuma as a cut off at the end of the forecast cycle above. That ‘s an unusual trajectory for a low! However, mods think its too dry to produce any rain as you might imagine. But with another low center aloft ending up in the SW, it demonstrates again our characteristic pattern for this early half of the winter, having become something of a low magnet. It certainly has been strange to see so many cut off lows.
BTW, the longer term picture after our little rain is a dry one for the next two weeks; it may well mark the end of our cut off low fantasia. Hope not.
Today’s clouds…
The marginal amount of moisture circulating around the periphery of this Baja low, I think will spin out some spectacular middle and high cloud streaks and patches over us such as Cirrus, Cirrocumulus with its tiny granulations, and Altocumulus lenticularis here and there, ones that often break up into small and interesting cloudlets downstream. Get yer cameras ready! Some of this began to happen yesterday afternoon. Sometimes you see the most amazing tiny delicate patterns, very photogenic.
Here are a few shots from yesterday, beginning with that sunrise patch of Altocumulus and ending with a sunset shot.
