Typical.
SURF:
Not much surf this past week but man was the weather all-time. Small SW was met with a touch of NW for mainly waist high+ waves around town (except Lowers which had chest high+ waves but were only for a privileged few- more on that in the blog below) and temps at the beaches hit the low 90’s. Of course all good things must come to an end and May Gray showed up yesterday for low clouds and fog in the night and morning. Today we’ve got similar conditions with just small SW and a touch of NW for waist high waves and chest high sets in the OC. Looks even worse than that first thing this morning because the tide is low, it’s overcast, and we have light SE winds from the eddy spinning up. Saturday the fog/low clouds last a little longer, we get a slight bump from the SW for waist high waves with inconsistent chest high sets, and small NW mixes in. By Sunday the SW holds and new NW windswell starts to kick in. Low clouds and fog may last through the day at the beaches unfortunately but at least we have some small rideable swell in the waist-chest+ high range. Nothing exciting this weekend- oh- except Mother’s Day- so get your surf on Saturday and hang with your mum on Sunday. From all that upwelling caused by the NNE winds this past week, water temps dropped to the mid-50’s. Thankfully some S winds are on tap for this weekend and next week so the water temps should rebound to the low 60’s by next week. Tides the next few days are about -1’ at 7am, 3’ around 2pm, 2’ at 6pm, and back to 3’ at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf!
FORECAST:
The only good news about the gloomy weather from the weak fronts coming through is that they kick up our winds off central CA/Pt. Conception. Sunday the NW windswell starts to build and by sundown we should have some shoulder high waves in north SD/OC and slightly bigger in southern SD. South OC stays about the same from the combo SW/NW swells. By Monday it’s pretty dreary around here with the thick low clouds and drizzle (more on that below) but we do get some good NW windswell out of it. Beaches will be lumpy from the short interval swell and we may have some S winds but head high waves will be found. South SD should even have some overhead sets. Tuesday morning the NW starts to back off and we’re left with some small waist high+ SW in SD and chest high+ in the OC. The second half of the week looks like we have some fun chest high SW lining up with more NW windswell towards Friday. Nothing too exciting happening in the southern and northern hemispheres but there will be some waves to be found.
WEATHER:
Typical May Gray is in store this weekend with low clouds and fog on tap for the nights and mornings and hazy afternoon sunshine in the afternoons. Sunday it may be hard for the low clouds/fog to burn off as a weak trough moves through California. By Monday it’s downright cloudy around town and we may even see some drizzle or light rain. Temps this past week hit the low 90’s at the beaches- by Monday of next week it will be in the low 60’s. A 30 degree swing. Bummer. Tuesday looks cool and cloudy again but weak high pressure starts to build and we should see some more sun and temps in the high 60’s by mid-week. By Friday another weak front is forecasted to come through just to the north of us which will kick up the low clouds and fog again. Nothing unusual for this time of the year but depressing nonetheless.
BEST BET:
Another conundrum- Get some solid NW windswell Monday but ugly conditions? Or wait for it to clean up and get smaller SW by Thursday? You know me- take the swell, ugly conditions, and no crowds.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Before you can surf, you need waves. And before you get waves, you need swell. And before you need swell, you need a storm. And before you get a storm, you need the basic ingredient- wind. But how do we get wind in the first place? Our friends at Answer.com have the um, answer. Wind is caused by air flowing from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. Since the Earth is rotating, however, the air does not flow directly from high to low pressure, but it is deflected to the right (in the Northern Hemisphere; to the left in the Southern Hemisphere), so that the wind flows around the high and low pressure areas. This effect of the wind "feeling the Earth turn underneath it" is important for very large and long-lived pressure systems. For small, short-lived systems (such as in the cold outflow of a thunderstorm) the wind will flow directly from high pressure to low pressure.
The closer the high and low pressure areas are together, the stronger the "pressure gradient", and the stronger the winds. On weather maps, lines of constant pressure are drawn which are called "isobars". These isobars are usually labeled with their pressure value in millibars (mb). The closer these lines are together, the stronger the wind. The curvature of the isobars is also important to the wind speed. Given the same pressure gradient (isobar spacing), if they are curved anticyclonically (around the high pressusre) the wind will be stronger. If the isobars are curved cyclonically (around the low pressure) the wind will be weaker.
Near the surface of the Earth, friction from the ground slows the wind down. During the day, when convective mixing is stirring up the lower atmosphere, this effect is minimized. At night, however, when convective mixing has stopped, the surface wind can slow considerably, or even stop altogether.
Wind can also be thought of one way that the atmosphere moves excess heat around. All wind is, directly or indirectly, helping to transport heat either away from the surface of the Earth, where sunlight causes an excess of energy buildup, or from warm regions (usually the tropics) to cooler regions (usually the higher latitudes). Extra-tropical cyclones accomplish much of this heat transport outside of the tropics, while in the tropics the trade winds, monsoons and hurricanes transport much of the heat.
Of interesting note: The highest wind speed ever recorded on the surface of the Earth was 231 mph on April 12 1934, atop Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. This high-elevation weather station experienced the winds of an extremely strong jet stream that had descended unusually low in the atmosphere. Think of that the next time you’re ticked off a 15 mph sea breeze blew out that new swell!
BEST OF THE BLOG:
If you want to see the future, then it’s time to check out the Nike 6.0 contest at Lowers this week. In particular the Dusty Payne/Kolohe Andino heat. Basically Dusty killed it and still lost with a 9 and an 8 to Kolohe. Both guys were blowing up and the surfing was nuts. Just check out the vid on the blog for confirmation. Or if you’re a sidewalk surfer, make sure to see the Alien Workshop deals at Seshday. All that and more in the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Best feeling in the world. You’ve been watching the charts all week in anticipation of a solid storm. The night before you can’t sleep because all you can think about is getting some solid carves in on long walls. You wake up at 5am, load your gear into the car and head on down to the beach at sunrise. Can’t get your suit on fast enough, then walk the down trail (more like run) and there it is- corduroy to the horizon. No one’s out and you can’t really tell how big it is. Do you run back to the car and switch the 6’2” under your arm for a 6’6”? Or do you say ‘screw it- I’m out there!’ As Billabong says “Only A Surfer Knows The Feeling”.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Rolling Stone
Chippendales Dancer
Best Bottom Turn In The Business
