Winter Storms, Summer Calm

When traveling on the boat during the summer, we pay close attention to weather forecasts and barometer readings. In past winters, on land in the city, we tended to be more cavalier, going about our business with little concern for the weather.
But not this year. Since we are living on the boat, the barometer is front and center, and it has given us a new appreciation for the power of winter storms. Until this month, we have never noted readings lower 1000 mb in our logbook; now we have seen readings as low as 960 mb. We are also seeing the barometer’s “tippy boat” symbol (shown above) pop up often. This appears when the barometric pressure changes more than 4 millibars in 3 hours, and we have only seen it twice in the past three summers of sailing. Over the past few November weeks, as half a dozen strong storms have rolled through the Seattle region, the tippy boat has popped up repeatedly. The wind rocks the boat at the dock, and we can see waves crashing on the point that marks the harbor entrance.
We have a new found appreciation of just how benign the Pacific Northwest weather is in the summer, and how different the weather patterns are in the winter months.