THE Surf Report

Where did our warm water go?!

SURF:

Had a little SW this past week. Nothing exciting but it kept far north SD county in rideable chest high waves and head high sets in the OC. We had a new little S fill in last night and today we've got shoulder high sets again with head high sets for the Vans US Open in HB. That lasts into Saturday. All in all should be a fun little weekend of surf if the clouds ever decide to burn off. Note there's only a tiny NW windswell in the water so the surf will be a little lined up this weekend- especially with the early morning low tide. So make sure to surf a point, jetty, or reef.

As far as the tides go, we've got a 0' tide at sunrise, up to 5' around 1pm, and down to 1' at sunset. We've also had cloudy skies the past week and WNW sea breezes so it's knocked down our water temps to 65. Not cool. Well, actually it feels cool. But you know what I mean. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:

After a little weekend of surf, we get some waist high NW windswell filling in late Monday. That lasts into Tuesday- just in time for a good SW swell on the charts.

The storm formed a couple days ago and should be filling in Tuesday. Expect head high sets around here with overhead sets in the OC. Along with the NW windswell, should be fun at the beachbreaks.

Right on it's heels is another storm forecasted to flare up tomorrow that should give us surf the 2nd half of next week. Nothing big but probably chest high waves in town and shoulder high in the OC.

We also have waist high NW windswell forecasted for next weekend. All in all some fun surf next week. Get it while you can though- the long term is looking pretty small with no real storms on the charts.

We also have a small tropical storm named Flossie in-between CA and HI but it's headed straight for the islands and we won't see any swell from her. 

WEATHER:

Looks like a carbon copy of last weekend: Monsoonal moisture is coming in from the desert southwest and there's a chance of showers here at the coast and stronger storms in the mountain and deserts. After the weekend we've got a weak cold front moving through northern CA towards Monday so it will clear out the monsoon moisture as well as help scour out the low clouds/fog during the afternoons along the coast. That pattern should hold the rest of next week and temps will be in the mid-70's along the beaches.

BEST BET:
Tuesday looks pretty good if the forecast holds up: Sunny skies by mid-day, a new head high SW swell, and a waist high NW swell to peak up the beachbreaks.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Why do such strong storms form in the central plains of the U.S. but seemingly not in southern California? Could their violent tornadoes happen here? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aims to explain the phenomenon and why get waterspouts here. First up: The geography of the Central U.S. plays a large role in the formation of severe weather, including tornadoes. Low-level southerly winds bring up warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, while higher up in the atmosphere cool, dry air moves in from the west. The warm, moist, lower density air topped by cooler, drier, higher density air causes the atmosphere to become unstable, meaning the air wants to rise rapidly. One index commonly used to describe the atmospheric in-stability is called CAPE – or Convective Available Potential Energy. The higher the CAPE, the more unstable the air is. In the Plains and Southeast, the CAPE can exceed 5,000 Joules per kilogram. In California, by contrast, 500 J/kg is considered high! It is the instability that allows air to rise and thunder-storms to develop, but that alone is not enough for tornadoes to form. Another major ingredient is wind shear: the change in wind direction and/or speed with height. South winds associated with the low-level jet (usually strongest around 5,000 feet above sea level) can be as high as 50-60 mph! This is the same jet that brings in that oppressively muggy air from the Gulf of Mexico. If you’ve ever experienced a dew point of 75, you know it makes our marine layer feel as dry as a Santa Ana wind. With a mid-level trough (around 20,000 feet above sea level) to the west, the winds become more westerly. Even higher up in the atmosphere, near 40,000 feet above sea level, the winds can exceed 100 mph. To put things in perspective, on the afternoon of May 31, 2013, near the time of the devastating 2.6 mile wide Moore, OK tornado, the winds at 5,000 feet were south at 41 mph, the winds at 19,000 feet were southwest at 61 mph, and at 30,000 feet they were southwest at 83 mph. The CAPE was 3,018 J/kg. This change in wind speed and direction with height causes storms to rotate, but not all rotating storms – commonly referred to as supercells – produce tornadoes. In fact, it is not well understood why some supercells produce tornadoes while many others do not. We do know you need strong directional wind shear in the low-levels, generally within the lowest 3,000 feet. This is where other surface features, such as fronts and drylines, come into play. Along these boundaries, the surface winds may shift to the southeast or even east. Now the winds are changing from southeast, to south, to southwest with height. The last piece of the puzzle is some sort of forcing to initiate storms. This can be something as simple as the sun heating up the ground and air near the surface, but in severe weather outbreaks it’s usually in the form of an upper level trough moving in and/or a frontal passage. Sometimes you can have everything in place – tons of instability, shear, and surface boundaries galore – and you will see nothing but sad little cumulus clouds because a layer of very stable air lingers somewhere in the atmosphere, preventing the air from rising and crushing your dreams of seeing a beautiful thunderstorm. To severe weather forecasters and storm chasers alike, there is nothing more humbling (and disappointing) than a clear air bust. California has experienced tornadic super-cells. However, they tend to be much smaller and weaker than their counterparts further east. In March 2003, one such storm passed north of the NWS office in Rancho Bernardo and produced a weak tornado in Ramona. Why are these storms so much less common and weaker here? First, the instability is much weaker here due to the lack of that special mixture of warm, very humid air near the surface and much cooler, drier air aloft. Even with a surge of subtropical moisture during the monsoon, our CAPE is not nearly as high as it gets in the plains. Wind shear tends to be strongest here with winter storms, usually ahead of a cold front. On Jan 19, 2010, strong southerly low-level winds ahead of a cold front, along with good instability (by CA standards), led to a tornado in Huntington Beach. Winds (and therefore wind shear) tend to be weak when the weather pattern is favorable for monsoon thunderstorms. In short, during the winter we may have the winds, but lack the instability. During the summer, we may have the instability, but lack the winds. We just can’t seem to get that combination of high instability and high shear needed for massive supercells at the same time! But wait, how do we get those tornadoes in the Inland Empire and deserts? What about the waterspouts off the coast? Those tornadoes form through a different mechanism, one that does not require such a delicate balance of shear, instability, and forcing. These tornadoes, known as landspouts, form in regions where air at the surface is colliding. In Southern California, this is usually along a sea breeze convergence zone. In the Inland Empire, the sea breeze moves around the Santa Ana Mountains and into the IE from the west and south. Where they meet in the middle is known as the Elsinore Convergence Zone (ECZ). This boundary usually extends from the Hemet/San Jacinto area to Lake Elsinore. As the two sea breezes crash into each other, the air is forced upward. If there is sufficient moisture and instability, showers and thunderstorms may form along the ECZ. Occasionally, the convergence can cause a circulation to form at the surface. If this circulation lines up with the upward motion, a landspout will form. Another form of tornadoes, called gustnadoes, may form along the leading edge of outflow from these thunderstorms. The mechanism for gustnadoes is similar to landspouts, except the convergence is along the outflow boundary instead of colliding sea breezes. Both tend to be weak – usually EF-0 or EF-1 – but are still enough to do damage. Similar convergence zones set up in the deserts. Waterspouts are essentially landspouts, but over water. Most commonly, waterspouts result from circulations in the convergence bands in the lee of the islands, or from circulations on convergence bands created when the onshore flow is partially blocked by terrain. Island banding occurs when air flows around the islands, including Catalina and San Clemente, and crashes into each other on the opposite side. Where there is convergence, there is upward motion, as well as low-level circulations. Where the two overlap – BOOM! – waterspout.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

3 new clips to get the adrenaline flowing for the weekend sesh: River surfing, Coleborn ripping, and a Kerama's recap. All of that and more, plus an in depth THE Surf Report in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

When your bros tell you it was firing, this is what they mean. For more en fuego photos, check out Andrew Shield's work here.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Kinda Funky
George Alexander Louis's Godfather
The Inspiration For Maui And Son's Sharkman

Clips of the Day: Wow.

All kinds of wacky stuff for the Clips of the Day. We've got fake waves in Wyoming, real waves in Indo, and some real surfing by Mitch Coleborn who proves you don't need to be on tour to be considered one of the best.

First up is Volcom team rider Alex Gray visiting fellow team rider Bryan Iguchi in Wyoming. Bryan isn't a Volcom surf team rider but rather on the snowboarding team, but he can hold his own in the waves (got that Todd Richards thing going on). They don't mention where this wave in Wyoming is but it's reminiscent of the Snake River in Wyoming that the Body Glove team visited back in the 80's; I'm still having Jim Hogan flashbacks. Looks super fun out there- especially since it's a novelty wave- and instead of watching out for sharks, you watch out for whitewater rafters. Awesome.

It must be Volcom day on the North County Surf blog as the next clip is from super-goofyfoot Mitch Coleborn. There was an article in the surf mags a couple years back claiming Mitch was one of the best surfers in the world even though he wasn't on tour- which is a pretty big claim if your name isn't Dane Reynolds. Then Mitch entered the Volcom Fiji Pro a couple years ago and took down some pretty big names in the comp. Then he backed it up this year by taking down a couple more big names. So Mitch has been surfing Indo lately and put together the clip above. And he absolutely blows up with the best of them.


Speaking of the best of them, the Oakley Bali Pro wrapped up a few weeks ago and Oakley put together a web clip highlighting some of the freesurfs before and after the heats. Good stuff from Kolohe, John John, Nat, and Jordy. Such a rippable wave.

THE Surf Report- Early Edition

Easy forecast: Good this weekend- small next week.

SURF:

Summer keeps a chuggin' along. Fun little waves this past week as well as warm water temps and sunny skies in the afternoon. Typical southern California. We've got some interesting stuff going on for this weekend though...

First up is a storm that formed about a week ago off Antarctica that will give us shoulder high waves in north county SD and head high sets in the OC through Sunday.

We also have winds blowing off central California that will give us a shot of NW windswell this weekend too. Nothing big but just enough to peak up the SW swell at our beachbreaks. In our skies, we've got a big surge of tropical moisture coming our way- almost too much- as the skies may be cloudy all weekend and air temps slightly cooler than they have been. At least the water is still hovering around 68-72- depending on where you live. Still good for trunks and a jacket. All in all some fun surf this weekend and high clouds overhead.

Beware the tides in the evening though! They 2' at sunrise, 4' at 8am, down to 2' again after lunch, and back up to a monster 7' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

FORECAST:

After a good weekend of surf, there's isn't anything impressive on the charts unfortunately. Monday starts off with dying chest high+ SW groundswell and then it gets smaller after that.

There was a little storm that brewed yesterday off New Zealand but we may only get chest high sets in the OC towards the 24th.

The north Pacific isn't much help either as the NW windswell and hurricanes are forecasted to be non-existent.

WEATHER:

As advertised above, we've got an odd low pressure system actually coming from the E (most low pressure systems for us come from the N or W) and as it moves through our area this weekend it will pick up monsoon moisture from the desert and we get a little chance of showers around here on Saturday. By Monday the clouds start to go away and we're left with typical low clouds and fog in the nights/mornings the 2nd half of next week.

BEST BET:
Should be a fun weekend of surf if you don't mind the clouds above.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Whether or not you believe in global warming, you have to admit it's been darn hot around here. So hot that last month was one of the hottest on record for Mother Nature. The facts from NOAA:

•The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for June 2013 tied with 2006 as the fifth highest on record, at 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F).

•The global land surface temperature was 1.05°C (1.89°F) above the 20th century average of 13.3°C (55.9°F), marking the third warmest June on record. For the ocean, the June global sea surface temperature was 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 20th century average of 16.4°C (61.5°F), the 10th warmest June on record.

•The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January–June period (year-to-date) was 0.59°C (1.06°F) above the 20th century average of 13.5°C (56.3°F), tying with 2003 as the seventh warmest such period on record.

Even though June was hot across the globe, no place on earth has the notoriety of our friend to the east, Death Valley. At just 280 miles from L.A., it has been famous for being one of the hottest and driest places in North America. In fact, Death Valley holds the record for the world’s highest surface air temperature ever recorded—134°F recorded at Greenland Ranch July 10, 1913. While 134°F is definitely well-above Death Valley’s average summer temperatures, temperatures frequently reach or exceed 100°F from mid-May until early October.

On July 5–14, 1913, Death Valley endured an intense stretch of hot weather. The high temperature reached 125°F or more every day, and that 10-day period still ranks as the longest consecutive stretch of temperatures that high on record in the valley. The hottest days were from July 9 to the 13, when the high temperature reached as least 129°F each day, and on July 10 the temperature spiked to 134°F. Although Death Valley had been known for being an extremely hot place, this reading helped to solidify its reputation.

On September 13, 1922, a temperature of 136°F was recorded at El Azizia, Libya. This was eventually certified by the World Meteorological Organization as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth. However, additional evidence recently came to light indicating that the 136°F reading was invalid. On September 12, 2012, the World Meteorological Organization officially re certified the 134°F reading at Death Valley as the all-time highest surface air temperature recorded on the planet.

So, why is Death Valley always so hot? Part of the reason is that the depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges. The clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the desert surface. The heat radiates back from the rocks and soil, and then becomes trapped in the valley’s depths. Summer nights provide little relief as overnight lows during the summer may only dip into the 85°F to 95°F range. During the hot spell we had earlier this month in the southwestern United States- Death Valley on a couple nights never got below 100 degrees. Now that's brutal.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

With all your hard work this summer, I thought you deserved some deals on Rip Curl, Rusty, Von Zipper, Reef, and Ocean Minded gear. And a killer pic to hang on your wall. Huh? Get the skinny on the North County Surf blog. All of that and more in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

With all the great weather and warm temps lately, I thought I'd throw this cold water gem at you for a loop. You know the days are getting shorter around here (June 21st is the longest day of the year and we're about a month past that already). December 21st will be here before you know it. And these frigid lines will start looking pretty good with that 4/3, booties, and hood of yours. Man I should just appreciate summer while it's here; no use getting ahead of myself!

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Emperor
So Stoked Twinkies Are Back
More Carvin' Than Marvin

Deal Alert! A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Summer is chugging along and I thought it would be a good time to get some deals on the North County Surf blog to keep you looking ship shape at the beach. Seshday has got all kinds of stuff on sale this week- from head to toe to wall (more on that below) so I'll start with hats. Like the Rip Curl trucker hat shown above. Here's the skinny:

Features:

-twill front

-mesh trucker style

-flat brim

-snap back

 

And it's under $12. Awesome.

Going further down your face, Seshday's got Von Zipper Alysium shades for $49 (normally $90). Turns out science is once again up for grabs; VonZipper has discovered Alysium, a place where the world ends, and your immortality begins. Although its just a theory, VZ will let you be the judge.

Features:
- 100% UV Protection
- Impact resistant polycarbonate lens
- Maximum flexibility
- Nylon grilamid frame
- Pop n' lock cam hinges
- Rubber nosepads & temples

 

Now that your noggin is taken care off, it's time to take care of your back. The legendary board shaper Rusty has wovens for sale on Seshday so you can look your best at Union, Solterra, Regal Seagull, Public, Bier Garden, Shelter, you name it. At only $27, it leaves you enough for a 2 drink minimum and a tip for your waitress.

So now that you're starting to collect all this stuff, where you gonna put it? The Dakine Pivot Backpack is the right bag for you.

Features
-Quick load skate carry
-Organizer pocket
-Mesh side pockets
-Volume: 1300 cu.in. [ 21L ]
-Size: 18 x 12 x 6" [ 46 x 30 x 15cm ]
-Planet friendly 100% PVC free: 600D Polyester
And just $21.95. Bam!

Alright, let's get to the most important piece of apparel for summer- boardshorts. Reef has got their 'Goat Island' boardshorts for sale this week at just $29.95.

Features:
- No inseam style
- 21" outseam
- Standard fit
- Tie front

Fabric:
- 85/15 recycled polyester/elastan
- Recycled 4 way elite stretch fabric

We're almost done outfitting you from head to toe. Just need some slaps on your feet. Inspired by recent trips to Southern Baja, this sandal was built with the surf trek in mind. The custom-shaped anatomical footbed, and lightweight construction lends extra comfort for those long hikes to your secret surf break for only $22.45.

Features:
- Rolled premium leather upper.
- Recycled PET webbing toe post.
- Premium leather footbed.
- Molded OM Foam midsole.
- Durable OM Foam outsole

 

And as promised above: large graphics to decorate your wall. Like the cold barrel shown above. Photographer Elmo Hernandez says: "I will never forget these waves galloping like a herd of horses trying to reach the coast, the blizzard was so heavy that I could only shoot this picture from inside a van with an open door, a really remarkable moment in my life."

Wall Murals are 3-1/2 x 5-1/4 feet (42 x 63 inches) large printed on an adhesive backed fabric with a matte finish. They stick to non-porous surfaces like painted walls, metal, glass, and sanded wood. Very easy to apply, they are reusable, repositionable, and do not leave any residue when removed. Just peel off the paper backing and press against the wall. Normally $300, they're on Seshday this week for $189.95.

So they're you have it. Everything you need to keep you going 'til the end of summer. From clothing to pictures. Kind of an odd combo but worth it!

 

 

 

 

 



Surf Check

We have been rocking summer this past week. Some fun SW in the water, clear skies, water temps in the low 70's, and air temps in the mid-70's. Life is good.

Today the SW was fading but we still had some chest high waves in town plus an added bonus of some NW windswell yesterday. Look for the NW and SW to back off tomorrow but fear not- more swell is on the way.

First up though are the tides. We've got a 3' tide at dawn, down to 2' mid-morning, then up to a 6' tide around 5pm, and down to 4' at sunset. And as mentioned above, the water temps are a perfect 72 degrees with Scripps reporting 73 today.

As far as the weather goes, we've got great conditions on tap tomorrow and Thursday as high pressure starts to build. As it does though, we've got monsoon moisture moving in from the desert SW that will cloud up our skies this weekend. It will still be warm and humid around here- just some clouds overhead. That should clear out by Tuesday next week.

 

The continuing sunny skies this week though is a perfect match for our next SW swell. We had a good storm form about a week ago and we'll start to see head high sets Thursday afternoon with the OC getting some overhead sets. That lasts into Sunday.

Good news is that as the SW is rolling along we get a small but helpful NW swell to peak up the lines; beaches should have some good combo peaks. Friday evening may be fun around here with the increasing tropical clouds, combo swell, and warm water. All in all a good weekend for surf.

After a good weekend of surf, the SW backs off on Monday and the 2nd half of next week looks pretty small. To throw salt on the wounds, the southern hemisphere wasn't active the past few days so we won't see any surf from this region of the world coming our way next week. The north Pacific wasn't much better as there's no NW windswell forecasted and the tropics are eerily silent in the middle of summer. So on that note- get it this weekend while you can!

 

 



THE Surf Report

The heart of summer.

SURF:
Even though the days are getting shorter (the longest day of the year was already a couple weeks ago on June 21st amazingly), we're just starting to heat up for summer. We've had warm water for almost 2 months now, the fog has been held somewhat at bay, and we're starting to get tropical weather almost every day. All we need is some good surf! The OC the past few days has had a steep angled S swell that's been good for shoulder high waves but down here we've been about stomach high.

We have another S swell in the water today for chest high sets in north county SD and head high sets in the OC. For tomorrow we get a reinforcement out of the SW for shoulder high sets finally in north county SD. There not much NW windswell in the water so south SD won't see much swell this weekend- and the lack of NW windswell to peak up the SSW swell will make it a little lined up around here too.

Tides the next few days are about 0' at sunrise, up to 4.5' at 1pm, and down to 2' before sunset. All in all some nice weather this weekend and fun SW swell. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:

After a fun weekend of surf, we get a break in the action for most of the work week. Models show a little NW windswell building for next Monday but that's only good for waist high sets in SD.

There is a storm though that flared up yesterday off Antarctica but that swell will take about 8 days to get here- so expect more SW swell next weekend- probably shoulder high waves with head high sets in the OC. And the tropics are eerily quiet today.

WEATHER:

Almost too much of a good thing the past few days. The tropical moisture is a nice touch around here- but it was too thick- we mainly received thick clouds and some big rain drops. Not the whole sunny 'Hawaii' scenario I was hoping for. Good news is that thick tropical clouds leave the region today but we get more night and morning low clouds. Once those clouds break up though mid-morning, we're left with sunny skies and temps in the mid-70's. Should be a nice weekend around here. More of that is on tap for next week.

BEST BET:
Should be fun tomorrow- new SW, warm water, and sunny skies mid-day.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Time Magazine (remember them?) just published a report that with the coming climate change, hurricanes could become stronger and more frequent. Existing research suggested that hurricanes could become stronger but less frequent thanks to climate change. But a new study says both could happen. Maybe Mayor Michael Bloomberg would have gone through the trouble of putting together a 430-page report outlining a $19.5 billion plan to save New York from the threat of climate change had Hurricane Sandy not hit  last year and inflicted some $20 billion in New York City alone. But somehow I doubt it. There’s a reason that a satellite image of Hurricane Katrina highlighted the poster for An Inconvenient Truth, or that belief in man-made global warming tends to spike after extreme weather. Heat waves are uncomfortable and drought is frightening, but it’s superstorms—combined with the more gradual effects of sea-level rise—that can make climate change seem apocalyptic. Just read Jeff Goodell’s recent piece in Rolling Stone about what a major hurricane might be able to do to Miami after a few decades of warming. But there was one hopeful side effect to climate change, at least when it came to tropical storms. The prevailing scientific opinion—seen in this 2012 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—is that while tropical storms are likely to become more powerful and rainier as the climate warms, they would also become less common. Bigger bullets, slower gun. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, suggest that we may not be so lucky. Kerry Emanuel, an atmospheric scientist at the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) and one of the foremost experts on hurricanes and climate change, argues that tropical cyclones are likely to become both stronger and more frequent as the climate continues to warm—especially in the western North Pacific, home to some of the most heavily populated cities on the planet. But the North Atlantic—meaning the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast—won’t be spared either. Bigger bullets, faster gun. Emanuel is going up against the conventional wisdom and much of the published literature with this paper. But the reality is that we don’t have a very good grasp of how tropical cyclone formation or strength might change in the future. As Adam Freedman points out at Climate Central, hurricanes may be huge, but they’re still too small to be easily tracked by computer climate models, which do better on a larger scale. Emanuel embedded higher-resolution regional and local models into an overarching global framework. Emanuel’s “downscaled” model simulates the development of tropical cyclones at a resolution that will increase as the storm gets stronger. For each of the six IPCC global climate models, Emanuel simulated 600 storms every year between 1950 and 2005, then ran the model forward to 2100, using an IPCC forecast that has global carbon dioxide emissions tripling by the end of the century. Emanuel’s simulations found that the frequency of tropical cyclones will increase by 10 to 40% by 2100. And the intensity of those storms will increase by 45% by the end of the century, with storms that actually make landfall—the ones that tend to smash—will increase by 55%. As Emanuel told LiveScience: “We see an increase, in particular, toward the middle of the century. The results surprised us, but we haven’t gotten so far as to understand why this is happening.” OK, big caveats here. Emanuel is a very well-respected climatologist, but it always takes more than a single study to overturn existing scientific opinion—especially if that opinion is itself a little wobbly. Georgia Tech climatologist Judith Curry, who falls on the more skeptical side of the scientific debate on climate change, told this to Doyle Rice of USA Today: “The conclusions from this study rely on a large number of assumptions, many of which only have limited support from theory and observations and hence are associated with substantial uncertainties. Personally, I take studies that project future tropical cyclone activity from climate models with a grain of salt.” We’ll see in the decades to come whether Emanuel is right. But in a way, it may not matter all that much. As Sandy showed, hurricanes already pose a tremendous threat to our coastal cities. And that threat will continue to grow no matter what climate change does to tropical storm frequency or intensity because we’re putting more and more people and property along the water’s edge. Remember Miami? In 1926 the city was devastated by a Category 4 hurricane. (Sandy barely ranked as a Category 1 by the time it made landfall.) The difference is that there wasn’t much of a Miami back in 1926—the city’s population had just passed 100,000. Today more than 2.5 million people call Miami-Dade county home, and a hurricane of the same sort that hit in 1926 that hit now would cause $180 billion in damages. Whatever climate change does to hurricanes, we need to be ready.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

Finally found out what the construction next to the Saloon in downtown Encinitas is going to be. All I can say is, 'Cowboys Stadium'. Understand? Good. Then make sure to check out the full story on the North County Surf blog. All of that and more in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Normally I don't like to give props to the 'competition' but Surfline is selling photographic prints that you can hang on your wall and they look awesome. Awesome to the tune of $1500 and I have to sell one of my kids- but still awesome. Today's pic of the week is from the Virgin Islands. You can see more here at: Great Breaks/Surfline. Just start saving your pennies and clear out space on the wall in your man cave.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Officer and a Gentleman
SD's Newest Mayor
Guinness World Record Holder for Most Barrels on One Wave: 18

North County Business News: Give Me Shelter

Another mystery has been solved by the investigative reporting team at the North County Surf Blog. Actually, if you just asked around town you probably would have found the answer on your own, but I thought I'd do the dirty work for you. The riddle of the year was: What was going in that empty spot next to the Saloon in downtown Encinitas?

My original thought was that the 80 year old Saloon was expanding. With all the bars and grills popping up in town, it seemed like they were adding to the mix. But the slow construction (about a year) threw me for a loop- what was the hold up?

But at the end of spring, windows and a door popped up and it looked like the Saloon's expansion was following the trend of other local bars- light and bright with an airy feel. And then the sign was put up about a week ago: 'Shelter'. And my theory that the Saloon was expanding was shot down. So I stopped by yesterday for a peek and man was I thrown for a loop. The construction crew let me know that yes, it was an expansion by the Saloon, but Shelter will have a different feel and hence the separate name. While the Saloon is darker inside with booths for seating, Shelter will have windows and be more open (see Priority Public House, Union, and Bier Garden). But what makes Shelter really stand out from the rest of the crowd is that it's going to have a retractable roof. Yeah I said it- a retractable roof. So if you like having a coldie outside on a hot day, Shelter is going to be your spot. And if it's dumping cats and dogs outside- Shelter is your place to go too- as long as they close the roof of course. Estimated opening date is at the end of July- perfect timing for summer. Make sure to check it out.