Buoy wind time series

Below are graphs of time series of surface winds from selected NDBC buoys. Time increases in the vertical. One wind arrow is plotted for each hour, beginning at 8 am and going to 6 pm. A scale arrow in the lower left shows an arrow corresponding to 10 m/s. Days of Coastal Waves surveys are plotted. The buoy maps are listed by the region that was surveyed. The buoys are all within 15 km of the coast, but represent our best picture of the conditions over the whole California coastline.

Note how on certain days, strong equatorwards winds seem to begin at a coastal promenatory such as Cape Mendicino and continue in strength down the coast. The diurnal signal is more visible on days of weaker winds. The maximum wind speed usually occurs around 5 in the afternoon.
Point Conception Point Sur Cape Mendicino Cape Blanco
June 19 June 02 June 07 July 01
June 23 June 11 June 12
June 29 June 17 June 26
June 21

Buoy pressure time series

A plot of the June surface pressure measured by several buoys can be seen here. Note the tendancy for a downcoast pressure gradient.

Along coast daily average (10am - 4pm)

The buoy data was averaged from 10am to 4pm local time to give the along-coast graphs shown below.  The data was plotted versus 10s of kilometers from Cape Mendocino (in latitude, not total distance, to correspond with Audrey's model output.)  The map of the buoy's locations can be seen here.
 
Point Sur Cape Mendocino Point 
Conception		 Cape Blanco
June 02 
U and P, 
Air T and SST 		 June 7 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 June 19 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 July 1 
U and P, 
Air T and SST
June 11 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 June 12 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 June 23 
U and P, 
Air T and SST 
June 17 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 June 26 
U and P, 
Air T and SST		 June 29 
U and P, 
Air T and SST
June 21 
U and P, 
Air T and SST
The data on this page is unpublished. If it is used please cite the author Kathleen Edwards, the Center for Coastal Studies, and the Coastal Waves group at Scripps Insitution of Oceanography.

Please send comments or questions to me at kate@coast.ucsd.edu