THE Surf Report- Early Edition

All I want for Christmas is El Nino.

SURF:
Looks like my Christmas wish may be coming true. Just when I started to give up on the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, the child rears it's ugly head. But before I get ahead of myself, let's talk about the past week.

Not much surf on tap but fantastic December weather around town. High clouds started to filter in yesterday and really got thick today as the NW picked up too from our impending storm. Late tonight winds should hit the 30mph+ range and the overhead surf today will hit double overhead in SD tomorrow. Long story short, lots of wind and rain tomorrow and stormsurf. Saturday things start to clean up but it's still jumbled. By Sunday we've got nice weather and leftover head high+ waves.

Water temps are holding in the mid-60's and tides are 3' at sunrise, up to 4' at lunch, and down to 3' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:
As I mentioned at the top of THE Surf Report, it seems like El Nino has finally arrived to the party. Lots of rain last week, bombing surf tomorrow with rain again, and in our forecast... more rain and big surf.

More storms in the Pacific will send another shot of overhead NW surf on Tuesday (along with rain yet again) and another blast of NW on Thursday.

After that, charts show a monster of storm off Japan which may send us a BIG NW towards late Sunday next weekend. Time to channel your inner Dorian!

WEATHER:

From famine to feast. No rain for 9 months and now more than the leaks in my roof can handle. After a good storm earlier this month, we're due for a nastier one tonight. The storm that's dumping 6-12" of rain up north today- as well as 6'+ surf at Lake Tahoe- and 50mph winds in San Fran- will finally make landfall here early Friday. We won't get the brunt of the storm but we will get up to an inch of rain at the coast and 30mph winds. Pretty good for southern California. Saturday is cool and breezy and Sunday/Monday look to be cool and pleasant. Charts then show ANOTHER storm headed our way for next Tuesday/Wednesday. After that it's anyone's guess (models actually show another storm next weekend- seriously) but at least we're on the right track to fill up our reservoirs.

BEST BET:
Sunday as we'll have leftover NW and clean conditions. Or next Thursday with clean conditions again and another overhead NW swell.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

With more rain coming tomorrow, where do we stand with the help of our last storm in early December for our rain totals? That storm didn't bring a lot of wind but it did bring a lot of rain. Spots like Yucaipa Ridge in the San Bernardino Mountains saw an incredible 14+ inches of rain. Spots along the coast didn't get that much of course but it was a much needed 1-2". And with the storm coming tonight, we should really see our season to date totals increase dramatically and help our drought situation. So where do we stand season to date? Here's what we have so far (PS- season to date is July 1st to June 30th):

-Long Beach: 2.99" so far. Normal is 2.06". 145% of normal.
-Oceanside: 2.26" so far. Normal is 2.41". Only 94% of normal.
-San Diego: 2.98" so far. Normal is 1.99". 150% of normal.

Looks good so far but we're still a LOOOOOONG ways away from the end of the season (which is around 10+" for a normal season) and we need a heck of a lot more to get us out of the drought. Pray tonight's storm and next Tuesday's storm get us to the half way mark.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

The best view in the world, compliments of Clark Little. Enough said.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Pundit
Paid $1.99 For Gas Today
Only Triple Crown Jockey and Surfing Champion