SURF:
I'll never be mistaken for a rapper, but I do know waves and weather. And we've had a little bit of everything this past week.
The southern hemisphere is coming alive, the North Pacific hasn't died yet, we've had great beach weather, and on the opposite side- cool breezy showers. All in the span of 7 days. Looks to be more of the same for the upcoming week. For tonight, we've got showers moving into the area again along with background SW/NW on Friday for waist high waves. Might be a good day to take a break and fix those dings.
For Saturday we have better weather in the afternoon and building fun SW swell for chest high surf.
Then on Sunday we've got new NW meeting up with the old SW for shoulder high sets. And great weather. Should be fun this weekend. And here's some numbers to mull over:
Water temps are low 60's all of a sudden...
And tides this weekend are:
- 2' at sunrise
- 4.5 mid-morning
- 1' late afternoon
- 2' at sunset
- 6:30 AM sunrise
- 7:10 PM sunset
FORECAST:
Could be good surf next week- if the weather behaves.
First up is a late season NW that will bring overhead surf on Tuesday- along with a late season cold front. Just showers but breezy W winds unfortunately will mess up the surf.
We also have some SW arriving at the same time that won't really show until the messy cold front exits on Wednesday.
Should see shoulder high sets late in the day from the SW with another shot of head high NW on Thursday through Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather is finally clean by next weekend so we can enjoy all the swells.
After that, models show the southern hemisphere TRYING to get it's act together again and we may see shoulder high+ SW towards the 15th through 19th.
And forecast charts show another NW taking shape around the 16th. Could be really fun the next couple weeks IF... the weak cold fronts stop rolling through. Make sure to keep track of the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
WEATHER:
April showers bring... you know the rest. We've got some showers coming through tonight and possibly Friday evening- typical for April. High pressure starts to take control late Saturday and by Sunday we've got temps in the high 70's at the beaches. Sound like last weekend? Monday is a transition day as another cold front moves into the area by Tuesday. This will be slightly stronger than tonight's cold front with a little more wind and consistent showers. That should be gone by Thursday and great weather again next weekend? Most likely.
BEST BET:
Sunday with combo swell and great weather. Or next Thursday/Friday with mostly NW swell and possible great weather again.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
How many high tides are there per day? Easy question right? We 2 high tides and 2 low tides, right?...
It depends. Most coastal locations have two unequal high tides a day. Like us. BUT... if the Earth were a perfect sphere without large continents (which it's not), and if the earth-moon-sun system were in perfect alignment (which they're not), every coastal location would get two equal high and low tides every day (which they don't). HOWEVER... the alignment of the moon and sun relative to Earth, the presence of the continents, regional geography and features on the seafloor, among other factors, make tidal patterns more complex. I'll let the experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explain:
While some places have one high tide and one low tide per day, most coastal locations have two high tides and two low tides a day. These highs and lows typically aren't equal. This is why, in most places, using the phrase "high tide" might be unclear. There's actually high tide and higher high tide (and low and lower low tide).
Tides are one of the most reliable phenomena in the world. As the sun rises in the east and the stars come out at night, we are confident that the ocean waters will regularly rise and fall along our shores.
Tides are very long-period waves that move through the oceans in response to the forces exerted by the moon and sun. Tides originate in the oceans and progress toward the coastlines where they appear as the regular rise and fall of the sea surface.
When the highest part, or crest, of the wave reaches a particular location, high tide occurs; low tide corresponds to the lowest part of the wave, or its trough. The difference in height between the high tide and the low tide is called the tidal range.
Around the world, there are three basic tidal patterns: semidiurnal, mixed, and diurnal. When both high tides are about equal to each other, and the low tides are also roughly equal, the pattern is called a semidiurnal tide. If the two highs and lows differ substantially, the pattern is called a mixed tide. Where there's only one high and one low tide a day, it's called a diurnal tide. One location can experience different tide patterns throughout the month.
The highest tides in the world can be found in Canada at the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. At some times of the year the difference between high and low tide in the bay is over 53 feet (basically the wave size of an average day for Shane Dorian). The highest tides in the United States can be found near Anchorage, Alaska, with tidal ranges up to 40 feet. And what’s the biggest tidal range we have here in north county San Diego? About 9'. A 7' high tide and a -2' low tide that usually occur towards early January. Not exactly 40 feet or even 53 feet; but still amazing to think that if you were standing on the shore at dead low tide, a 6’ person would be 3’ under water at high tide. Or another way of thinking about it; as the 7' high tide starts to race towards -2', the tide would dropping 1.5' an hour. That's fast.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
If Baja took a European vacation.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Spare No Expense
Still Have A Perfect Bracket
Every Year Want To Surf A Wave As Big As My Age. Aiming For A 75' Bomb When I'm 75
