SLOweather

This is the closest I’ve seen a Red Flag Warning come to San Luis Obispo.

Form the NWS; “A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW…OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS…LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY…AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL. PLEASE ADVISE THE APPROPRIATE OFFICIALS OR FIRE CREWS IN THE FIELD OF THIS RED FLAG WARNING.”

“…A RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM SUNDAY FOR STRONG EAST TO SOUTHEAST WINDS AND VERY LOW HUMIDITIES ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF SANTA BARBARA AND SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTIES… THE INTERIOR VALLEYS OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY…AND THE CUYAMA VALLEY..

…A RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM SUNDAY FOR STRONG NORTHEAST TO EAST WINDS AND VERY LOW HUMIDITIES ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF VENTURA AND LOS ANGELES COUNTIES…THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS…THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY…AND THE VALLEYS OF LOS ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES..

.STRONG OFFSHORE WINDS DEVELOPED ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS TODAY…WITH MANY LOCATIONS REPORTING HUMIDITIES INTO THE LOWER TEENS AND SINGLE DIGITS. THE STRONGEST WINDS WERE FOCUSED ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LOS ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES.. WHERE LOCAL WIND GUSTS OF 50 TO 70 MPH WERE RECORDED. OFFSHORE WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DIMINISH SLIGHTLY ACROSS LOS ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING…WITH A MORE SIGNIFICANT DECREASE BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WINDS ACROSS SANTA BARBARA AND SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTIES COULD ACTUALLY INCREASE SLIGHTLY WITH THE DIRECTION SHIFTING TO A MORE SOUTHEASTERLY DIRECTION WITH TIME.

HUMIDITY LEVELS HAVE LOWERED INTO THE LOWER TEENS AND SINGLE DIGITS TODAY WHERE THE STRONGER OFFSHORE WINDS SURFACED. THESE VERY DRY CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY EVENING. THE COMBINATION OF STRONG OFFSHORE WINDS…VERY LOW HUMIDITIES…AND CRITICALLY DRY FUEL CONDITIONS HAS PROMPTED THE RED FLAG WARNING.”

Today is the first full day of autumn or fall in the Northern Hemisphere. (It’s the vernal equinox or first day of spring south of the equator.)

The sun crossed the equator at 9:03 PM PDT last night. Technically, I suppose that makes yesterday the first day of fall in this timezone, while, since it would have been 12:03 AM EDT, today would be the first day in the east.

In theory, there should be equal amounts of daylight and darkness at the equinoxes. There’s an interesting dissertation at space.com as to why this isn’t so.

SLOweather is pleased to announce a SLOweather page just for cell phones and wireless PDAs.

Just point your wireless browser to http://wx.sloweather.com/pda.htm .

The page is sized for small screens, but contains essential information like current conditions, forecasts, and current RADAR and satellite images.

Check it out.

Here’s a satellite loop from today of the smoke from the Day Fire sweeping up the coast. It’s clear why the skies weren’t clear in SLO today.

There is more smoke overhead today from the Day Fire, which has increased in size to over 80,000 acres. That’s causing the reddish orange coloration of the sun overhead now.

Sept. 13, 2006 — Scientists at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center reported today that El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific and are likely to continue into early 2007. Ocean temperatures increased remarkably in the equatorial Pacific during the last two weeks.

More here…

I’ve been building new pages for SLOweather lately, and working on a new page design. There are enough new pages now to go ahead and launch them.

The newest pages are mainly marine oriented; tides, waves and buoys for the Central Coast. There’s also a new SLO airport page with decoded METAR and TAF information, and a local earthquakes page.

If you have a wireless PDA or web-enabled cell phone, I’ve also built a PDA-sized SLOweather page. It looks good on both a Pocket PC (tested on a Dell Axim), and a web-enabled cell phone (tested on a Verizon/Motorola E815).

The new links should be active on the left side menu on the SLOweather home page. I’m trying to keep the content from the old site active as I build the new one.

Feel free to send me comments and requests for additional content, using either the old or new contact pages.

Look for a milder and possibly wetter than average winter along the Central Coast this year. According to NOAA, a weak El Nino condition has formed in the Pacific, and may strengthen somewhat over the coming months. More from CNN here.

The sunrise clouds to the southwest of SLO this morning must smoke from the Day Fire in Ventura County. I5 was closed for a while yesterday.

EDIT Shuttle launch postponed ’til Saturday 8:15 PDT due to a fuel sensor problem.
—
Shuttle Atlantis is on track for launch at 8:40 this morning (Friday, 8 Sept 2006).