Barometer for past week, taken from: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/abiotic/barometric/barometric.htm
Westerly swells near middle rock, Northern sea lions surfing.
Storm damage to roof of Science Centre building.
On Dec 16th in the afternoon a low pressure system moved in right over southern vancouver island bringing Easterly winds that exceeded 50 knots (measured from tower) and then switched 180 degrees, within a few hours over midnight, to Westerly winds toping out also over 50 knots the morning of Dec 17th. As shown above atmospheric pressure reached a low of below 980 hPa, one of the lowest readings i have seen out here.
Flying sea lion
The westerly winds brought several dumps of hail and rain and created good surf conditions for Northern sealions to catch a few waves. Several shingles were blown off the Science Centre building on both the South and North sides of the roof.
Fresh snow on vancouver island behind sea lions, gulls and cormorants on West and Middle rocks.