We've got the best SW sea breezes in the world in summer and occasional epic easterlies almost year round on the river.

But we were never sure why the easterlies blew in so strong - stoked to find info from the experts.
Shows why we watch Gooseberry Hill on Willyweather.

What do you think?

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azymuth said..
We've got the best SW sea breezes in the world in summer and occasional epic easterlies almost year round on the river.

But we were never sure why the easterlies blew in so strong - stoked to find info from the experts.
Shows why we watch Gooseberry Hill on Willyweather.

What do you think?

That's really cool. I wonder if that's the same phenomena that happens on the Columbia river gorge in Oregon, but perhaps more seasonable.

From what I understand this is close to the same wind generated in southern Alberta as a westerly flow comes down the Rocky Mountains. The air is also warmed coming downhill and is called a Chinook. But really only occurs in the cooler months of the year.
As for the gorge it is actually up hill but is driven by the warm air over the interior plains rising and sucking in the cooler air from the coast through the Columbia River George. Which acts as an Venturi to accelerate the wind. The river is dammed in a few spots but still has up wind current which keep you on a broad reach and jack up the swells. By best friend is currently there and reports a high number of high end windfoilers lead by the Sailworks and Slingshot crews. Doing everything from ripping up the swells to Balz type freestyle to neck breaking racing.

This is the same effect that super charges South to North wind flow in Southern Bavaria causing the "Foehn Sturm" on the Southern Bavarian lakes as well as Urnersee in Switzerland. There is a similar effect that causes the Vento at lake Garda and again super charges is if there is a high pressure system over the gulf of Genoa and a low pressure system in Southern Germany.

The wind effect at the gorge is causes by the air temperature difference between the Pacific Northwest and the Inland desert. It does get accelerated due to wind being forced through what's essentially a very long gorge (no pun intended).Now let's start looking for a big enough body of water between Gooseberry Hill and the Airport.

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stehsegler said..
This is the same effect that super charges South to North wind flow in Southern Bavaria causing the "Foehn Sturm" on the Southern Bavarian lakes as well as Urnersee in Switzerland. There is a similar effect that causes the Vento at lake Garda and again super charges is if there is a high pressure system over the gulf of Genoa and a low pressure system in Southern Germany.

The wind effect at the gorge is causes by the air temperature difference between the Pacific Northwest and the Inland desert. It does get accelerated due to wind being forced through what's essentially a very long gorge (no pun intended).Now let's start looking for a big enough body of water between Gooseberry Hill and the Airport.

I used to sailboat race at Lago Maggiore, in Italy (almost half a century ago), and in long distance races we locals often took advantage of the "montive", evening/night breezes coming down certain locations from the mountains around the lake. Much smaller scale and intensity but I suppose the same effect. Warmer air over the lake sucks in air from the mountains. A small scale Foehn. The effect described in the original post seems however much more violent, not sure what it is meant by "trapped".