Even if you missed our alerts earlier in the weekend (here and here), you might have heard, if not seen, the Blue Angels‘ flybys tonight:

That photo is by from John Catalano – the clouds really were that amazing from Jack Block Park, where we watched the U.S. Navy’s demonstration team do its flyby earlier this evening, with a downtown-skyline photo op along the way. Another view from Monica Zaborac:

(We had a similar, though much-less clear, angle in our Twitter photo.) Monica’s closer look at the “delta” formation used for what the Navy said was a photo op:

And if you didn’t hear the roar, here’s a bit of video as they passed over. The pilots’ publicly announced schedule doesn’t include more flying until Wednesday, the day Blue Angel #7, a two-seater, goes up on flights during the day with “influencers” and media (Seafair says this year’s list includes soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Seahawks player Jimmy Graham). Then Thursday and Friday, the whole squad practices, with official airshows Saturday and Sunday.

Another reminder for this Seafair week, with West Seattle specifics:

PARADE OF SHIPS: You might see ships from the Seafair Fleet in Elliott Bay earlier in the week, but the official Parade of Ships – right past West Seattle shores on the way to the downtown waterfront – is on Wednesday afternoon. As previewed here, three U.S. Navy ships, one U.S. Coast Guard ship, and three Canadian Royal Navy ships are expected, and then they’ll be open for tours on the downtown waterfront Thursday-Sunday. Full details of that are here – but remember, on Wednesday, while 1:45 pm is the downtown “parade” time, the ships will be visible here earlier, usually around 1 pm.

P.S. I-90 BRIDGE CLOSURES: Thursday-Sunday, the Blue Angels practices/shows require the I-90 bridge across Lake Washington to shut down for hours at a time. This not only loads up 520, but also tends to cause I-5 backups approaching 90, which in turn affects the eastbound West Seattle Bridge. Memorize the times – we’ll also include them in our morning traffic/transit-watch reports EVERY day this week:

Thursday, July 30 – two separate bridge closures, during which pilots will practice maneuvers and become familiar with area geography – First Closure: 9:45 a.m.-12 p.m., Second Closure: 1:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

Fri., July 31- 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (practice show)
Sat., Aug. 1- 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (full show)
Sun., Aug. 2 – 11:50 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. (full show)

(Blue Angels’ delta formation; 2008 photo by David Hutchinson)
1:12 PM: Update from Seafair and the U.S. Navy: The Blue Angels are expected this evening an hour earlier than announced, and will make multiple downtown flybys, which should be visible from anyplace in West Seattle that you can see the downtown skyline. Just announced:

The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, are scheduled to conduct a flyover of downtown Seattle near the Space Needle for a team photo shoot, Sunday, July 26, 2015.

The Blue Angels will fly the squadron’s six-jet F/A-18 Hornet Delta Formation over downtown Seattle from south to north, then north to south at least two times. The jets will fly this formation on the west of the Space Needle, with a seventh jet flying alongside as a photo platform.

The flyover will be visible to the general public. The photo shoot is scheduled to take place at approximately 6:30 p.m. PST.

See our Saturday report for details of the Thursday-Sunday practices, shows, and related I-90 bridge closures.

7:17 PM: They arrived about half an hour ago. We watched the flybys from the Jack Block Park overlook:

Checking our video now to see if anything came out clearly enough to use; we’re planning a story later tonight looking ahead to Seafair week, including a reminder of Wednesday’s Parade of Ships.