When I win the lottery, I'm getting a house in Newport for S swells and one in La Jolla for N swells.
SURF:
The past couple weeks has seen some fun surf in southern California- if you live in Orange County. Storms in Antarctica haven't been forming off New Zealand (optimal for SD) but rather off South America (optimal for the OC). So while we've been waist high+ down here, they've been head high+ up there.
FORECAST:
After the new little SSE peters out on Monday, it's pretty quiet the rest of the week.
WEATHER:
Pretty mellow weather on tap for at least the next week. Cool sunny conditions are forecasted as a weak trough sets up shop this weekend and low clouds burn off by lunch. Early next week the trough exits but temperatures still stay in the low 70's at the beaches- but the sun should come out earlier. And none of that fun monsoon/tropical moisture in the foreseeable future.
BEST BET:
Saturday with nice cool weather and a little bit of SSE swell or more of the same next weekend!
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
We've never had a hurricane hit southern California (that we know of) but we've come close. Like Tropical Storm Doreen in 1977. 40 years ago this week, Doreen formed off Baja and came straight up the peninsula towards San Diego. Luckily for us, water temps were 68 degrees up here, so Doreen died before giving us a direct hit (she actually was a tropical depression 80 miles W of Encinitas when she died). But we still got walloped with it's leftovers. Doreen was only a category 1 storm with 75 mile per hour winds, but she moved parallel up the Baja California peninsula and took dead aim at southern California. By the time she got here, she was only a remnant low, which doesn't even make me get out of my chair in the winter time around here, but in the dry summer months, it's a different story…
In anticipation of the storm, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for the Colorado River Valley area, and were extended into southern California, including Santa Barbara County, the mountains of San Diego County, Riverside County, and portions of the Mohave Desert. Heavy rainfall fell in southern California with an average of 2–4" of rain for a period of three days. Heavier precipitation was reported in the mountain areas, where rainfall peaked at 7.45" on Mount San Jacinto (remember- this is summer people). Several other locations reported heavy rainfall; 3.78" was reported in Calexico and up to an inch along the San Diego county coast (which would be impressive even for a wintertime storm).
In addition to heavy rain. Palm Springs reported wind gusts as high as 60 mph. As a result, trees toppled and power outages occurred. Highway 88 and 111 were under water from Brawley, near the Mexican border to the Salton Sea. California State Route 98 was also flooded from Brawly to Blythe. Two of four lanes on Interstate 15 were washed out from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, stranding thousands of gamblers in places like Barstow. Ocotillo, a town that was devastated during Hurricane Kathleen in 1976, was flooded again a year later from Doreen. Overall, damage totaled $25 million, mostly in agricultural losses in San Diego and Imperial Counties and eight deaths were reported. Nothing like this boring summer we’ve been having.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Cape Fear?! PUH-LEEEEAASE. More like Cape Fun. Piece of cake. Right now you can't see my hand shaking as I type this.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Esteemed
Actually Have A Tree That Grows Money
Just Like I Told The Guy On ABC, Danger Is My Business
