Weather Archive
for Tuesday, 2/8/05

Strong lapse rate, light wind, some OD, variable cloudbase, some haze.

The day dawned cloud free, but with a strong lapse rate and light wind, we expected it to develop.  No inversion at dawn, so it was soarable early with a defined cloud street set up along the range by 9 am.  The forecast discussion indicated increasing offshore gradients that might counter the development.  Cloudbase started out near 4K in SB, but the clouds got thicker through the morning with lowering bases and by late morning they were down to the low to mid 3s, but by noon the development was starting to thin with lifting base, and late in the day base dropped back into the mid to high 3s in SB and the upper 3s to low 4s through the Casitas Pass.  Cloudbase in Ojai varied from the low to high 5s with Chief's Peak and the Bluffs in the clouds.  At dusk, the range was cloud free.

The 6K wind was consistently from the east at about 7 to 10 knots.  Southeast in places, but also some occasional NE on glides, and some solid local draw from the south in Ojai in the afternoon.  The lower level wind was light in SB from the SW, and lighter than usual in Ojai from the SW, but stronger than SB.  The low level wind through Casitas pass was from the SE early, but switched to SW early in the afternoon.  Piru switched from offshore to onshore in the middle of the afternoon.  The ocean was light all day.  The wind was light enough that you could go both directions, but it was more fun to go downwind.  We'll have to give oat a try on one of these SE days now that it is more accessible.

The lift worked at all altitudes below 6K and you could get back to base from down low.  Just behind the sun line seemed to work best.  It was smoother and weak back in the darker shade, and more punchy out near the sun line.  The sun line pushed out pretty far by late morning, but moved back up to the front points in the afternoon.