I haven't been keeping close watch on the troposphere in the Pacific, but, this looks wicked to me.

250-850 hPa layer (click here for animation)

hPa is  hectopascal. It is roughly 1 millibar of pressure. This particular satellite measures wind speed in knots/per second. Don't get hung up on the hectopascal thing. That is where these winds are taking place. 250-850 hectopascal of pressure occurs about one quarter to less than a mile up in the troposphere.

These upper winds are sailing at over 100 knots per second. That means the upper winds are traveling at over 31 miles per second.

Is this translating to high winds at ground level? California has been knocked around for the last couple of weeks.

January 17, 2017
2330,19z
UNISYS Water Vapor satellite of the north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 horu loop - thank you)

173 MPH wind gusts? It looks like there is more to come. When is the acceleration of the upper troposphere going to stop?

250 to 850 hPa at these longitude and latitudes should be evaluated for excluding air traffic. I haven't heard of any falling out of the sky, but, I haven't looked either.

July 10, 2017
By Patrick May

As long as you’ve not been (a) stuck (click here) in a mudslide-jammed morning commute or (b) had a tree branch bite off part of your roof or (c) had torrential rains wash away half of your backyard, this week’s storms have served up an entertaining, continual and wide range of jaw-dropping weather moments.

They may not be historic per se, because with 150 years of meteorological record-keeping out there it can be difficult to break a weather record. Think about it: while it may seem like it’s been raining in the Bay Area for weeks now, it’s only been since Jan. 1, a mere 10-day stretch that pales compared to the nearly-three-week-long stretch of wet stuff that once hit San Francisco.

“San Francisco’s record for all-time wet spells,” says meteorologist Jan Null with Golden Gate Weather Services, “is 19 consecutive days back in 1938, from Jan. 27 until Feb. 14. So we’ve still got a long way to go to beat that. And since we’re not expecting rain at all this coming Friday, we won’t beat it this time around.”...

This is more than a wet spell. I am glad California is getting rain, but, this is worrisome. 

OK, so this pales by comparison with the domestic record-setting 231 miles-per-hour gust atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire on April 12, 1934, or the world-record-breaking 253-mph blast that hit Barrow Island, Australia Oct. 4, 1996. But 173 is still a remarkable velocity to behold. And as Null points out, it’s tough to compete with Mt. Washington when it comes to whacked-out weather: “Mt. Washington is a sort of Mecca for meteorologists,” he says. “There’s a weather observatory there where they get these high winds and wind chills of minus 100 all the time.”

This is NOT Barrow Island or Mt. Washington where unusual weather is the norm. This is mid-latitudes California. I'll look toward Valentine's Day as the day the winds stopped in California. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Pacific Northwest and Canada

January 17, 2017
4:15 PM
Accuweather radar (click here for loop - thank you)

Counties, cities and people need to be made aware of the extended period of time this will continue. They have to prepare for flooding and wind. People have to know what they are up against.

In sharp contrast, the north Atlantic and Europe are not seeing this disturbance at the same altitudes.


Mean sea level pressure, (click here) wind speed at 850 hPa and geopotential 500 hPa, temperature at 850 hPa.

Tuesday, 17 January 2017
1200 utc

Not even close to the turbulence over the east Pacific.