Saturday, August 19, 2017

Viewing Eclipse by Boat May Bring Surprises

Just learned that a friend of ours will be headed to Portland from the south during the eclipse, which brings up a couple points related to a recent post here.  Namely, what will happen when the air temp drops 10ยบ or so when the sun is obscured?

Below is the UW WRF model meteogram for just off shore the OR coast.


It will be interesting to learn what mariners see offshore when the temperature drops rather quickly at sea. In principle, it could lead to some overcast or even fog.  Note in the pic above that the dew point and air temp are forecasted to be close to begin with, ie won’t take much deviation from this model forecast to be fog in the first place, but during the sun eclipse the temp will definitely drop to dew point.. could drop well below that.

The data are just off shore. It will be interesting to see if these thoughts show up in any of the official marine forecasts.  They should be looking at this same WRF model from UW. 

On land in Ballard (Seattle), we see this is not so much an issue.



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