Information Summary


A Catalina Eddy on 10/13/95

These western U.S. and eastern Pacific sea-level pressure pattern superimposed on a visible satellite image, shows a region of relatively high pressure (greater than 1032 millibars in places) across the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains. This high pressure center ultimately was responsible for driving winds from the north/northeast across the east-to-west mountain ranges just east of Pt. Conception, which led to the formation of the Catalina eddy. (See summary of information about the western U.S. overview for more information about this companion image.)

(A note on data shown: The 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. images show buoy data actually recorded an hour before the the land-based SAO data and the satellite image shown. This was done because little or no buoy data was available at 8:00 A.M. or 10:00 A.M., and because the basic pattern probably hadn't changed so dramatically that the buoy data wouldn't be roughly representative of the time actually claimed for it.)


For information about reading some of the meteorological information on the Southern California image shown here, refer to the key to weather-station plots and general description of visible and infrared satellite images.

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