Large-Scale Structure of the June–July 1996 Marine Boundary Layer along California and Oregon

Atmospheric measurements offof the U.S. West Coast are sparse in the extreme. [...]recently, there were only two coastal operational upper-air stations that recorded data in the MABL (Rotunno et al. 1992). Since the June-July wind record for 1996 was unavailable at the Scripps Pier in San Diego, data for 1997 were substituted because they were judged to be typical of other summers. The winds from the coastal stations are fastest in the afternoon, but are lower than the mean speed at the nearest buoy. [...]coastally measured winds will in most cases be an underestimate of the wind speeds just offshore.