Time for a breather.
SURF:
From feast to famine. After an unbelievably long SW swell lit up our coast for 5 days last week, we were treated to small waist high SW swell this week. Unfortunately we had amazing weather with no wind and air temps in the 90’s but no real surf to speak of as well as water temps in the low 60’s. Not a good combination. Today we have some small SW swell being joined by a little NW windswell. Most spots are waist high+ with the OC picking up some inconsistent chest high sets when the SW sets show up. The SW should fade slightly over the weekend while the NW windswell fills in a little more. Basically SD should have a little better waves as we move towards the weekend (chest high) while the OC drops slightly. Nothing too exciting in the coming days but you might find some fun little ramps if you hunt for them. Tides the next few days are 3’ at sunrise, 5’ at 9am, 1’ mid-day and back up to 5’ at sunset. Water temps warmed up slightly over last weekend and are sitting in the mid-60’s. And as always, keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
FORECAST:
After a weekend of small rippable peaks we get a slight boost from the SW towards Monday. Nothing big but it will give SW facing breaks some chest high waves along with some leftover NW. The middle of next week looks to be pretty small and only small NW windswell/groundswell is on the charts for next weekend. As far as the tropics are concerned, the Atlantic is awake and the Pacific is asleep. Time to get caught up at work since you most definitely played hooky during that last bombing SW swell.
WEATHER:
I know I keep harping on this global warming thing and the theory that the weather will be more extreme in the future- but man- what a wild week we just had. From tropical thunderstorms last weekend to beach temps in the 90’s mid-week to low clouds and fog this weekend. All we’re missing is snow (great I just jinxed it). We have a weak front moving through the state this weekend and we’ve got a return of low clouds and fog on tap for at least the next few days. Temps are going from 90 degrees a few days ago to 70 in the coming days. The low clouds should break up mid-day and come back in the evenings. Not the worst weather this weekend but not great ‘Indian’ summer weather either. This cool weather pattern should hold into the middle of next week. Then hopefully we get warm beach weather again for next weekend.
BEST BET:
Tough call- not the best surf and not the best weather on tap the next few days. So I say strike while the iron is hot- either get some small SW today in the OC or if you live in SD wait for the NW to fill in a little more tomorrow.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Oh no- she’s back. La Niña, which contributed to extreme weather around the globe during the first half of 2011, has re-emerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is forecast to gradually strengthen and continue into winter. This week, forecasters with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center upgraded last month’s La Niña Watch to a La Niña Advisory. NOAA will issue its official winter outlook in mid-October, but La Niña winters often see drier than normal conditions across the southern tier of the United States and wetter than normal conditions in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley. “This means drought is likely to continue in the drought-stricken states of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center. “La Niña also often brings colder winters to the Pacific Northwest and the northern Plains, and warmer temperatures to the southern states.” Climate forecasts from NOAA’s National Weather Service give American communities advance notice of what to expect in the coming months so they can prepare for potential impacts. This service is helping the country to become a Weather Ready Nation at a time when extreme weather is on the rise. Seasonal hurricane forecasters factored the potential return of La Niña into NOAA’s updated 2011 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, issued in August, which called for an active hurricane season. With the development of tropical storm Nate this week, the number of tropical cyclones entered the predicted range of 14-19 named storms. The strong 2010-11 La Niña contributed to record winter snowfall, spring flooding and drought across the United States, as well as other extreme weather events throughout the world, such as heavy rain in Australia and an extremely dry equatorial eastern Africa. La Niña is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon located over the tropical Pacific Ocean and results from interactions between the ocean surface and the atmosphere. During La Niña, cooler-than-average Pacific Ocean temperatures influence global weather patterns. La Niña typically occurs every three-to-five years, and back-to-back episodes occur about 50 percent of the time. Current conditions reflect a re-development of the June 2010-May 2011 La Niña episode. Usually in southern California we get drought and great weather for the winter but last winter’s La Nina was the opposite. Which is no complaint since we needed the rain. So what’s in store for southern California’s winter now that La Nina is here again? Let’s hope more rain.
BEST OF THE BLOG:
I thought maybe you were tired at looking at big SW swell this past week so I posted a new video from the Wavegarden in Spain. Two of the best young surfers in the world tackle perfect little waist high lines- in the middle of a Spanish forest. Or get your dose of a mid-week surf report. And wonder what all the construction around Highway 101 near Beacons has been lately? Find truth and enlightenment in the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
The surf world has been focused on NY this week as the ASP World Tour has hit the big apple. Luckily Hurricane Katia sent amazing surf to the event and showed the world that yes, the east coast does have surf when it wants to. But it’s not all beachbreaks and barrels on Broadway. There’s a few points here and there too. Just need hurricanes like Katia to make them come to life…
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Ornery
Pushed the Wrong Button at the Power Plant
’87 ASP Rookie Of The Year
