THE Surf Report

Almost too good to be true.

SURF:
That was about 12 days of fun surf we just had. Warm water temps, head high combo swell, and sunny most days.

Today we mainly have NW windswell in the water with a little background SW for chest high sets. Wind is light from the SE and the sun is hiding behind the low clouds again; hoping to see it break up by mid-day.

The weekend looks to be more of the same with chest high sets primarily from NW windswell and smaller SW swell underneath. Don't worry though- we've got corduroy to the horizon late next week- more on that below.

Water temps are a fantastic 68-70 degrees and the tides the next few days are 2' at sunrise, down to 0' mid-morning, up to 5' late afternoon, and down to 2' at sunset. And if you're wondering, the sun's up early so you can hit it almost at 5:30am now and it's setting around 8pm. Plenty of time to surf for anyone's schedule.  Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:

After a weekend of playful NW/SW, the beginning of the week looks to continue the small but rideable theme. The NW should back off and we're left with just background SW swell.

By late Wednesday we may see signs of a good SW starting to hit our shores that was formed from a BIG storm a few days ago. If all goes according to plan, by Friday we should have sets well overhead in SD and 10' in the OC with the Wedge maybe hitting 20'. Could be one of the bigger SW swells of the last few years. JINX! That swell should last through the weekend. Time to ride the 6'6" finally?!

After that there's a smaller storm on the charts in the southern hemisphere that may give us head high sets around mid-month.

WEATHER:

High pressure has been slowly building the past few days and will continue to do so into the weekend. Unfortunately, as high pressure starts to clamp down on the atmosphere, it may trap the low clouds at the coast. So while inland just a few miles temps may be in the mid-80's, the beaches may have a hard time burning off the clouds and be in the low 70's. Could be worse I guess- June Gloom is notorious for thick clouds/drizzle and south wind. Hoping to see a little more sun at the beaches than what the models are forecasting. High pressure starts to break down the middle of next week and we'll still have low clouds at the coast but it should have an easier time breaking up by mid-day and more seasonal temps.

BEST BET:
If the models hold true, late next week will be a doozy.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

NOAA has released their latest climate reports. Here's what's going on in the world:
Global Highlights
• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for April 2013 was the 13th warmest on record, at 0.52°C (0.94°F) above the 20th century average of 13.7°C (56.7°F).
• The global land surface temperature was 0.71°C (1.28°F) above the 20th century average of 8.1°C (46.5°F), marking the 17th warmest April on record. For the ocean, the April global sea surface temperature was 0.44°C (0.79°F) above the 20th century average of 16.0°C (60.9°F), tying with 2001 and 2009 as the seventh warmest April on record.
• The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January–April period (year-to-date) was 0.56°C (1.01°F) above the 20th century average of 12.6°C (54.8°F), tying with 2009 as the eighth warmest such period on record.

Select national information is highlighted below:
• April 2013 brought the fifth warmest April average maximum temperature on record to Australia since national records began in 1900, at 1.64°C (2.95°F) above the 1961–1990 average. At the state level, Western Australia reported its third highest monthly-averaged maximum temperature (2.41°C/4.34°F above average) and fifth highest monthly-averaged minimum temperature (1.50°C/2.70°F above average). Tasmania was the only state with a below-average monthly maximum temperature (-0.23°C/-0.41°F).
• According to NIWA, April temperatures in New Zealand were "well above average" (more than 1.2°C/2.2°F above the 1971–2000 average) across most of the North Island. April temperatures were "above average" (+0.5°C/+0.9°F to +1.2°C/+2.2°F) across most of the South Island.
• The average April temperature across the United Kingdom was 1.1°C (2.0°F) below the 1981–2010 average, tying with 2012 as the coolest April since 1989.
• As reported by the Icelandic Meteorological Office, all listed observation stations in Iceland had average April temperatures below the 1961–1990 average. Departures from average ranged from -0.7°C (-1.3°F) at Stykkishólmur to -2.1°C (-3.8°F) at Egilsstaðir (fourth coldest in the 58-year period of record at this station).
• The April global sea surface temperature was 0.44°F (0.79°F) above the long-term average, tying with 2001 and 2009 as the seventh warmest April in the 134-year period of record. Temperatures were much warmer than average across the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, northern and southeastern Indian Ocean, and much of the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Near-average sea surface temperatures were observed during April across most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, with below-average SSTs in the far eastern equatorial Pacific. According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, ENSO-neutral conditions continue to be favored into the late Northern Hemisphere summer 2013.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

We're almost to June and you know what that means- Volcom Fiji Pro time! Remember the bombing swell last year? Re-live the glory on the North County Surf blog. And take a look at the swell charts to see what's in store for this year's event. Plus the mid-week Surf Check AND an in-depth THE Surf Report. All of that and more in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Nothing spectacular about this week's pic. Unless you like overhead rights with no one out. Ok, pretty awesome I guess. 

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Benefactor
Riding Shotgun With Bieber
1998 Tidal Bore World Tour Champion