Potential “Barking Dog” Report: High Winds and Waves

If you are a long time reader of Beach Drive Blog, you are familiar with the “barking dog” report. A “barking dog” report is when we are preparing to possibly flood from waves breaching our bulkhead. It’s called a “barking dog” because, much like a neighbor’s barking dog – it could be much ado about nothing. We are not professional weather people – we do care about our neighbors and will “bark” if we see what we think is enough warning. And, like your neighbor’s barking dog, we’re not always right.

So… this is what we’re looking at right now and this is subject to change (please check links on the right for updated forecast).

First of all, we have some very high tides in the next couple of days, paired with the strong winds. This chart is from NOAA.

Now check out this chart from Wind Alert for Alki Point.

This is concerning.

We have an 11.39 on Wednesday at 4:56 pm… what seems to be more concerning is the next high tide estimated at 12.44 at 5:38 am on Thursday when it’s predicted we may have gusts up to 50 mph.

Puget Sound Marine forecast:

 WED NIGHT  SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT…BECOMING S 20 TO 30 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 5 FT. RAIN.  

THU  S WIND 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT.  

THU NIGHT  SW WIND 15 TO 25 KT…BECOMING S 10 TO 20 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT.

If for nothing else, this is a good reason to make sure you are prepared for potential flooding and to check on neighbors – make sure they know about this potential storm.

I hope this is a big to-do about nothing.