SURF:
Had a sneaky SW swell show up earlier in the week- underneath some strong W winds. Conditions cleaned up eventually and we were left with small but rideable surf the past few days. For the weekend, we get a return of Ol' Man Winter (actually, just his poor cousin Doug), with some showers, wind bump, and small but rideable surf from the NW.
Look for waist high+ surf most everywhere tomorrow with leftover SW and chest high sets from the NW on Saturday/Sunday. The surf would probably be fun IF it wasn't for the weak cold front moving through this weekend. Here's the tides and sun (behind the clouds) this weekend:
- Sunrise and sunset for Friday/Saturday are:
- 6:08 AM sunrise
- 5:51 PM sunset
- And if you don't know by now, Daylight Saving Time is Saturday night, so set your clocks ahead 1 hour when you go to bed! That means on Sunday, the sun is out from:
- 7:07 AM sunrise
- 6:52 PM sunset. You can now surf until 7 PM! And in case you're wondering, the longest day of the year the sun sets at 8 PM on June 21st.
- Water temps are still in the high 50's
- And tides are WAY crazy this weekend:
- 6' at sunrise
- -1.3' mid-afternoon
- 2' at sunset
FORECAST:
If this weekend is too mellow for you, then Ol' Man Winter has something for you next week. Forecast models have all kinds of stuff going on. First up is the lowering of our storm track meeting up with the Pineapple Express. Monday starts off small but the rain starts to increase in the afternoon.
By Tuesday the rain may be heavy at times and the (storm) surf picks up to the head high range from the NW. The rain should continue on Wednesday and the surf holds but slightly changes course to the WSW as the storm moves down the Pacific. By Thursday the rain may finally taper off but the water should be filthy. After that, there's just small activity forecasted from the N Pacific but the S Pacific shows our first major storm of the season taking shape.
If everything comes together, we could see overhead sets from the SW around the 16th through the 18th. Make sure to check out Twitter/North County Surf if anything changes between now and then.
BEST BET:
Tough call since the small surf this weekend may have some wind on it and the bigger W next week will have a lot of dirty water with it. So maybe not until the 16th?!...
WEATHER:
As mentioned above, winter makes a return the next 10 days with a small cold front this weekend and a solid one next week. Look for nice cool weather tomorrow, then a weak cold front Saturday/Sunday with a little bit of wind and a little bit of showers. Monday starts off cloudy then rain should hit later in the day. Tuesday/Wednesday look to be a mess with 1-2" forecasted and hopefully gone by Thursday. Shouldn't be a lot of wind with this storm- mainly rain. For next weekend, it's anyone's guess.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
From time to time on THE Surf Report and the North County Surf blog, I’ll mention various weather terms to describe conditions for the upcoming week and how it will impact the surf. Terms such as cold fronts, low pressure systems, wind patterns, etc. and thought it would be a good time to go in to detail with the help of our friends at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Here’s a quick rundown on what makes up the weather around us:
Imagine if our weather on Earth were completely motionless, had a flat dry landscape and an untilted axis. This of course is not the case; if it were, the weather would be very different. The local weather that impacts our daily lives results from large global patterns in the atmosphere caused by the interactions of solar radiation, Earth's large ocean, diverse landscapes, and motion in space.
Global Winds
Earth’s orbit around the sun and its rotation on a tilted axis causes some parts of Earth to receive more solar radiation than others. This uneven heating produces global circulation patterns. For example, the abundance of energy reaching the equator produces hot humid air that rises high into the atmosphere. A low pressure area forms at the surface and a region of clouds forms at altitude. The air eventually stops rising and spreads north and south towards the Earth's poles. About 2000 miles from the equator, the air falls back to Earth's surface blowing towards the pole and back to the equator. Six of these large convection currents cover the Earth from pole to pole.
Air Masses
These global wind patterns drive large bodies of air called air masses. Air masses are thousands of feet thick and extend across large areas of the Earth. The location over which an air mass forms will determine its characteristics. For example, air over the tropical ocean becomes exceptionally hot and humid. Air over a high latitude continent may become cold and dry. You have probably noticed the temperature rapidly dropping on a nice warm day as a cold air mass pushed a warm one out the way.
Imagine if our weather on Earth were completely motionless, had a flat dry landscape and an untilted axis. This of course is not the case; if it were, the weather would be very different. The local weather that impacts our daily lives results from large global patterns in the atmosphere caused by the interactions of solar radiation, Earth's large ocean, diverse landscapes, and motion in space.
Global Winds
Earth’s orbit around the sun and its rotation on a tilted axis causes some parts of Earth to receive more solar radiation than others. This uneven heating produces global circulation patterns. For example, the abundance of energy reaching the equator produces hot humid air that rises high into the atmosphere. A low pressure area forms at the surface and a region of clouds forms at altitude. The air eventually stops rising and spreads north and south towards the Earth's poles. About 2000 miles from the equator, the air falls back to Earth's surface blowing towards the pole and back to the equator. Six of these large convection currents cover the Earth from pole to pole.
Air Masses
These global wind patterns drive large bodies of air called air masses. Air masses are thousands of feet thick and extend across large areas of the Earth. The location over which an air mass forms will determine its characteristics. For example, air over the tropical ocean becomes exceptionally hot and humid. Air over a high latitude continent may become cold and dry. You have probably noticed the temperature rapidly dropping on a nice warm day as a cold air mass pushed a warm one out the way.
Fronts
The location where two air masses meet is called a front. They can be indirectly observed using current weather maps, which can be used to track them as the move across the Earth. Cold fronts, occur where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass (as in the case of this weekend here in Southern California). Warm fronts occur where warm air replaces cold air.
Jet Streams
The local weather conditions that we experience at the Earth's surface are related to these air masses and fronts. However the environment far above us impacts their movement. High in the atmosphere, narrow bands of strong wind, such as the jet streams, steer weather systems and transfer heat and moisture around the globe- like in the case of the storm next week here in San Diego.
Coriolis Effect
As they travel across the Earth, air masses and global winds do not move in straight lines. Similar to a person trying to walk straight across a spinning Merry-Go-Round, winds get deflected from a straight-line path as they blow across the rotating Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere air veers to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left. This motion can result in large circulating weather systems, as air blows away from or into a high or low pressure area. Hurricanes and our Aleutian low pressure storms are examples of these cyclonic systems.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Reason # 12,894 why I L-O-V-E New Zealand (besides Kiwi fruit, Sir Edmund Hilary, Raglan, Kiwi birds, and no snakes). This looks like a reverse Lowers. Notice anything (or should I say anyone) missing?...
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Supercalifragilisticexpialidoc
Going To Introduce A Bill To Congress In Which The Sun Always Sets At 8 PM
Had A Small Part In the Lesser Known 'Beyond Burnt Boards'
