Record low in the North Pacific - 921 mb

[jackdale]

There is apparently a record low in the North Pacific. This looks really nasty.

[BugzyCan]

Originally Posted by jackdale

There is apparently a record low in the North Pacific. This looks really nasty.

Some big waves with it too. There is a second one West of this one with even bigger waves, over 40 feet.

[acem]

The marine forecast i read said seas 30 to 60 ft and warned of freezing spray. The forecast began with securite.

I guess a boat could accumulate enough ice to sink it!

Thx-Ace

[Jim Cate]

Scotty, beam me up.... please!

Jim

[Franziska]

That's pretty impressive..... and pretty scary too.
If you switch on wind gusts in Windy, you see almost the entire northern Pacific from Japan to the US displayed with Bft. 10-12. Not good.

[GordMay]

The interaction of the frigid air mass and a powerful Pacific jet stream allowed for this system to quickly strengthen. The low rapidly intensified on Wednesday, exceeding all criteria for a meteorological weather bomb, deepening over 60 mb in 24 hours. Record-breaking cold in Siberia and Japan wrapped into the system, creating extremely tight pressure gradients; consequently, air parcels were able to spin around the International Date Line with fury.
As the storm peaked in intensity on Thursday, the maximum winds approached 200 km/h on the southern side of the low with roughly 30 per cent of the waves soaring over 15 metres, with theoretical maximum waves of nearly 30 metres – but this is impossible to verify due to limited ship reports and sparse marine buoys.
The swell will propagate across the Pacific and there is the possibility that parts of western Vancouver Island could see 6 to 8 metre waves by early next week as strong storms continue to develop along this sharp upper trough.
As the pressure fell below 930 mb on Shemya Island, Alaska on Thursday, it set an all-time low pressure reading for the state. According to the National Weather Surface, the low fell to 921 mb, making it one of the strongest storms to ever impact the North Pacific.
For reference, only a single Atlantic hurricane in 2020 had a lower pressure reading, Hurricane Iota at 917 mb, although this comparison is hardly a fair one.
➥ https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca...-2020-and-2021

[Albinvega27]

https://earth.nullschool.net/#curren...146.421,64.064

[AiniA]

That would spoil your day, but probably not for long because you would soon be dead.

[zeehag]

these occur in winter. not usually as strong but pnw storms are winter cyclones. keep watching.
congrats frozen north you done made a strong one.
now lets watch it tear up the west coast as do most of these.
funny how these are only noticed when the center is lower than usual.
happy new year and may the storms not be too extreme. they do end up in san diego then head east. as usual, to bring pleasure to many in continental usa.

[Jamme]

Originally Posted by GordMay

➥ https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca...-2020-and-2021

Deadly stuff. Hopefully all ships had enough time to avoid being in the area.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by BugzyCan

Some big waves with it too. There is a second one West of this one with even bigger waves, over 40 feet.

Wrong low. The one on question is in the bearing sea.

[jackdale]

The British Columbia coast looks like it is going to take a pounding.

[roverhi]

Originally Posted by acem

The marine forecast i read said seas 30 to 60 ft and warned of freezing spray. The forecast began with securite.

I guess a boat could accumulate enough ice to sink it!

Thx-Ace

The ice could accumulate on rigging adding enough weight to make the boat unstable. Technically the ice wouldn't sink the boat just heel it over enough that water could flood the boat. When I was living aboard in Norfolk, VA a boat came in that looked like a giant icicle from masthead to deck when it ran into freezing rain in the Chesapeake. Wasn't enough weight to make the boat unstable but could see how it could be.

These low pressure systems march across the Pacific in 4-14 day spacing for most of the winter. Makes for some spectacular regular winter surf in Hawaii but no fun trying to get a boat up or down the West Coast. Fell afoul of those passing lows a couple of years ago and was stuck in SF for more than two months waiting for a weather window to take the boat south.

Hope the container ships steered clear of this one. Last month one lost thousands of containers in a much less severe storm.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by jackdale

The British Columbia coast looks like it is going to take a pounding.

Looking at the jet stream it’s likely to keep that low north of the Aleutians for the time being.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by rbk

Looking at the jet stream it’s likely to keep that low north of the Aleutians for the time being.

The 500mb analysis shows the jet stream moving south. The 96 hour forecast shows that the centre of that low hitting at the bottom of the Alaska panhandle. The fronts will hit the BC central coast.

Johnstone Strait will be a nightmare.

https://www.weather.gov/marine/nepacificbrief