SURF:
You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office! What's that have to do about the surf the past week? Not sure.
All I know is that we had a mixed bag with weak cold fronts moving by the N and leaving us with NW winds and FREEZING water temps. Wednesday/Thursday were cleaner but the NW and SW swells were on their way out. Today? Another cold front is passing by and whatever small surf is out there was blown to bits.
Good news is that Friday looks to be clean and we've got a bump of NW windswell in the water for chest high surf with smaller SW underneath. For Saturday & Sunday, the NW will be gone, but we'll have leftover waist high+ SW and chest high sets as you move towards the OC. And here's the tides, sun, and water temps:
- Sunrise and sunset:
- 6:43 AM sunrise
- 7:05 PM sunset
- Water temps are a chilly 57.
- And the tides are on a racetrack this weekend:
- 4' at sunrise
- 6' mid-morning
- -0.5' mid-afternoon
- and back to 4' at sunset
FORECAST:
Next week summer starts to take hold while winter fades away.
Monday sees leftover waist high+ SW swell then another weak cold front moves by the N for chest high windswell on Tuesday.
Wednesday is clean again as the NW fades and new small but fun SW builds. Look for waist high+ surf with chest high sets in far N County SD.
After that, the SW gets a reinforcement from a good storm off Antarctica and we'll see chest high+ SW around the 2nd of April. And beyond that... the N and S Pacific look to take a breather so get it while you can.
WEATHER:
If you loved this week, you're gonna love next week! As mentioned above, the weak cold front today will exit tonight for sunny skies tomorrow and temps in the mid-60's on Friday. Saturday hits 70 and Sunday the mid-70's at the beaches! Then another weak front moves through late Monday into Tuesday for cooler/breezy conditions again, then we get a warm up the 2nd half of next week. If anything changes between now and then, make sure to check North County Surf on Twitter!
BEST BET:
Friday with clean conditions and combo swell. Or late next week with great conditions and a fun SW swell.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Kind of cool looking but not really all that cool at the same time, along the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coast, an eerie sight dots the changing landscape. Rising sea levels turn thriving green vistas of hardwood and evergreen trees into "ghost forests," dried-up terrains filled with gnarled, dead, and dying timber. Under climate change, these could become an even more common sight, according to a new report published by Rutgers University. Here's the Smithsonian to explain:
Ghost forests are landscapes that form when saltwater begins to flood woodland areas that contain freshwater-dependent trees. The water high in salinity slowly poisons trees, and as they die, all that is left behind are ghostly gray trunks that resemble toothpicks. The trunks can last decades in this dried-up barren state.
Researchers at Rutgers University, along with the United States Department of Agriculture, found that coastal woodland forests ranging from Virginia through Massachusetts are dying as a result of heavy rain, saltwater surges, and flooding from rising sea levels.
The rising salt water not only kills trees but leaves soil unhealthy and forests uninhabitable for new growth. This report is alarming as coastal forests are habitats for many rare plants and wildlife, such as the threatened swamp pink plant.
Not only are the ghost forests expanding because of climate change, they could also be making hostile conditions worse through a feedback loop. Forests along the East Coast are riddled with evergreen trees that absorb carbon dioxide almost year-round, making them crucial carbon sinks that can lower carbon dioxide concentrations from the atmosphere.
With fewer evergreen trees, less carbon is removed from the air.
“One ecological benefit of healthy coastal forests is the sequestration and storage of carbon both aboveground and in soils. As coastal forests transition to marsh, we lose aboveground carbon. Some of that is released into the atmosphere, and some shifts to other carbon pools,” Lindsey Smart, a ghost forest expert at the North Carolina State University.
To mitigate ghost forests, coastal forests need protection from development, and proper planning and collaboration with landowners must be established, according to the Rutgers report. Solutions the researchers suggest include creating living shorelines by planting trees to slow erosion, depositing sediments to help marshes move to higher elevation as sea levels rise, and planting forest vegetation that can tolerate changes in soil.
“This study adds to the growing evidence that this is not a localized phenomenon, given other reports up and down the east coast,” says Smart. “While the rate and extent varies based on local site characteristics, it’s clear that sea-level rise and the synergistic pressures between sea-level rise and land use modification...are changing our coasts, impacting our coastal forests.”
Ghost forests are landscapes that form when saltwater begins to flood woodland areas that contain freshwater-dependent trees. The water high in salinity slowly poisons trees, and as they die, all that is left behind are ghostly gray trunks that resemble toothpicks. The trunks can last decades in this dried-up barren state.
Researchers at Rutgers University, along with the United States Department of Agriculture, found that coastal woodland forests ranging from Virginia through Massachusetts are dying as a result of heavy rain, saltwater surges, and flooding from rising sea levels.
The rising salt water not only kills trees but leaves soil unhealthy and forests uninhabitable for new growth. This report is alarming as coastal forests are habitats for many rare plants and wildlife, such as the threatened swamp pink plant.
Not only are the ghost forests expanding because of climate change, they could also be making hostile conditions worse through a feedback loop. Forests along the East Coast are riddled with evergreen trees that absorb carbon dioxide almost year-round, making them crucial carbon sinks that can lower carbon dioxide concentrations from the atmosphere.
With fewer evergreen trees, less carbon is removed from the air.
“One ecological benefit of healthy coastal forests is the sequestration and storage of carbon both aboveground and in soils. As coastal forests transition to marsh, we lose aboveground carbon. Some of that is released into the atmosphere, and some shifts to other carbon pools,” Lindsey Smart, a ghost forest expert at the North Carolina State University.
To mitigate ghost forests, coastal forests need protection from development, and proper planning and collaboration with landowners must be established, according to the Rutgers report. Solutions the researchers suggest include creating living shorelines by planting trees to slow erosion, depositing sediments to help marshes move to higher elevation as sea levels rise, and planting forest vegetation that can tolerate changes in soil.
“This study adds to the growing evidence that this is not a localized phenomenon, given other reports up and down the east coast,” says Smart. “While the rate and extent varies based on local site characteristics, it’s clear that sea-level rise and the synergistic pressures between sea-level rise and land use modification...are changing our coasts, impacting our coastal forests.”
PIC OF THE WEEK:
A gift to my goofyfoot friends. Here's what it would be like to surf Swami's if it was a left. Or Bells. Or Coxos...
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Nonchalant
Masked Singer
So Amped When I Surf That I Recharge My Jet Surf
Michael W. Glenn
Nonchalant
Masked Singer
So Amped When I Surf That I Recharge My Jet Surf
