The Valley Shear in Winter

East wind in the Sacramento Valley and west wind on the Mendocino Mountains west slope indicated a shear line lie between. Today was a rare wintertime opportunity to find that shear which often occurs during the summer months. Unfortunately the shear was obscured in a moist air mass as I arrived at the gliderport excited to soar. The anxiety of seeing many sailplanes staged for launch as I impatiently waited at Williams Soaring became too much and I had to take "Juliet Hotel" the ASW-27B into the sky for a try.
I launched too early and got spooked on tow once into the multi layered sky, fearing IMC, prompting a low release. It was good takeoff and landing practice before conditions improved. Soon the sky scattered and it was time for a relight out to Three Sisters at 4000'. I worked wind blown lift in the foothills and then found that shear line as it moved east marked with a nice line of Cu.
Fortunately, there were some good pilots out today helping mark lift along the shear.
Eventually, the shear moved all the way to Williams and sparked off nice thermals in the unstable atmosphere.
I followed the shear as it crossed past the airport into the wet central valley.

Lift began dying, bases lowered and the wind shifted west at Williams. Time for negative flaps and a short upwind hop to the airport after a fun soaring flight following the classic valley shear.