Well there is two ways I know this…One is I look at the weather forecasting models…What I look for is what we call a pressure gradient…Many are saying what the hell is that?.... It is when the isobars are rather tight, or close to each other, from a low pressure to the South/Southwest and a high pressure to the North… I also look for the SFC winds to be blowing across Lake Superior from the Northeast…The more fetch of the Lake along with the strong winds will normally build big waves in the Superior/Duluth areas or known as the head of the lake…. Yesterday was another great setup to build waves…So the storm chaser mode kicked in at 5 AM and I decided I could not pass this up…I did see this coming together on Tuesday however to decide to head up on that alone would be dumb on my part, do to things in the models do change…When I saw things setting up just right yesterday morning I was packing and heading out the door… I made it up to Lake Superior by 9 AM and then the work started….Not too much going on in the wave dept sure they were big but nothing like what was in store for me latter in the day….
I had winds sustained at 30 MPH with gust up to 45 MPH, as the day went by I started to get gust into the 50s MPH….Little did I know that would not be the worst, I did record a wind gust at 57.9 MPH latter in the day…I would have taken a picture of that, however I was outside taken pictures and video along with eating sand…What I also noticed there were two ships in the Harbor they sat there all day, wise choice..With the special weather statement the Duluth NWS had going….I didn’t call in my reports to them, not sure if they wanted to hear about the wind gusts of the lake or not…I would send them pictures, however once again not sure if they want them either..If someone knows email me, or if someone from the Duluth NWS reads this please let me know…I would have to say the Duluth NWS was all over this! They did a great job!
For the most part the day was dry, all except the sea spray, which was really bad at Park Point.. Tons of people out there also so I decided to head back to WI Point… Latter towards evening started to get some light snow/rain/sleet…. Let me say this that sleet stung! I had to call it a day was losing the good light was also sick of being wet! Plus I knew all the real work that was ahead, and I still have more to do still! Ok so here are some pictures from yesterday the video links will be added in another post…..I got to meet a lot of nice people once again, also got to see others I met up there before. So it was a great day for me… I would rank this wave event to number one so far! Even the people I was talking to said the same....
More pictures can be found on my facebook..I will add more this evening.
