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SURF:
Fun week of surf was met with overcast conditions at the beaches with just a hint of sun late in the afternoons. Not really big and not really small. Not that I’m complaining or anything- it’s great to have a steady stream of surf. Kind of like having an open tab at a sand bar (bad joke, I know). Today is the same with overcast conditions and some continuing SW and NW windswell. SW winds are already blowing 5-10 mph. Sets are head high in the far north with some overhead waves in the OC. Beware the negative tides though at sunrise and the SSW eddy winds; looks kind of ugly early- best to get it mid-morning.
Sunday the SW will hold and the NW will back off- look for far north county and the OC to have the most waves. Inconsistent- but still rideable. All in all- should be a fun weekend of surf- even with the overcast conditions. Water temps are in the mid 60’s and it could be short sleeve fullsuit time- except for the overcast conditions putting a damper on that idea. Tides the next few days are -1’ at sunrise, 4’ at lunch, 2’ at 5pm, and up slightly to 4’ at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
FORECAST:
After a fun weekend of SW/NW surf, the SW backs off Monday and the NW windswell picks back up for chest high waves in SD. That holds into Tuesday. Wednesday looks a little small. By Thursday we have another fun SW showing for head high waves in the OC and more NW windswell filling in. Those swells will probably look eerily similar to today’s waves; head high peaks most everywhere. Nothing really big on the radar for the upcoming week but plenty of fun waves to be found. On a side note, the tropics are active again and we’ve got an area of thunderstorms starting to organize into a low pressure system off the Mexico/Guatemala border. The National Hurricane Center thinks there is a 50% chance this will be a named storm in the next few days. If it does, it’s still a ways away from our swell window- and since Hurricane Adrian fell apart last week as it hit our swell window due to cold water- I’m assuming this storm will do the same. Hopefully I’m wrong so make sure to keep up to date on the storm at Twitter/North County Surf.
WEATHER:
Even though the past week has been cooler than normal with overcast conditions at the beach- it’s pretty typical for June so I’m not that surprised. Nothing shocking like last summer’s cloudy/breezy/cold conditions. It’s a weird time of year as the ‘winter’ cold fronts/troughs have their last gasp down here but summer’s warm sunny influence hasn’t kicked in yet. So we get something in-between- cool cloudy ‘June Gloom’ conditions. No feature is really dominant so it’s hard to tell what the weather is going to do. Maybe the front is stronger than forecasted so the clouds stick at the beaches all day. Or maybe weak high pressure decides to flex it’s puny muscles and we get afternoon sunshine- it’s been that way lately- not sure what we’re going to get. Kind of like we’re stuck in purgatory. Latest models show the clouds sticking around the beaches all weekend- sorry dads- that means cloudy cool conditions at the beaches and 10mph SW winds look to be hanging around through Sunday. Models though show high pressure starting to muscle it’s way in so we should get more sun and temps near 70 starting Tuesday at the beaches. That lasts until Friday when the clouds are forecasted to stick around again. Can’t wait for July to get here.
BEST BET:
Today looks pretty fun with the NW/SW combo- but it’s overcast and cool with SW winds. Maybe wait until next Thursday when we get another similar sized SW and NW swells with MAYBE sunnier/warmer conditions.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Summer is finally here! Ok, it’s still a few more days away and the weather isn’t cooperating, but I just can’t wait- the summer solstice is almost upon us! Our friends at NOAA can give us some insight here on what the summer solstice is and the surrounding aura: The summer solstice occurs at the moment the earth's tilt toward from the sun is at a maximum. Therefore, on the day of the summer solstice, the sun appears at its highest elevation with a noontime position that changes very little for several days before and after the summer solstice. In fact, the word solstice comes from Latin solstitium or sol (the sun) + -stit-, -stes (standing). The summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which is located at 23.5° latitude North, and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and southern China. The sun will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer on June 21, 2011. For every place north of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun is at its highest point in the sky and this is the longest day of the year. But why is the longest day of the year not normally the warmest day of the year? The reason is that there is a lag between the longest day of the year and the warmest average temperatures for most mid and high latitude locations. The sun angle is high before and after the summer solstice with a maximum number of daylight minutes. As the sun begins to move lower in the sky, the length of daylight decreases. This lag in temperature occurs because even though the minutes of daylight are decreasing, the earth's surface and atmosphere continues to receive more energy than just what it receives from the sun. Average temperatures continue to climb until the sun drops lower in the sky. We all know that the Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun once every 365 days, following an orbit that is elliptical in shape. This means that the distance between the Earth and Sun, which is 93 million miles on average, varies throughout the year. During the first week in January, the Earth is about 1.6 million miles closer to the sun. This is referred to as the perihelion. The aphelion, or the point at which the Earth is about 1.6 million miles farther away from the sun, occurs during the first week in July. This fact may sound counter to what we know about seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, but actually the difference is not significant in terms of climate and is NOT the reason why we have seasons. Seasons are caused by the fact that the Earth is tilted on its axis by 23.5°. There are two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in an equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as equinoxes and occur near March 21 (Vernal Equinox) and near September 21 (Autumnal Equinox). At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on the two equinoxes. The Vernal Equinox usually occurs around March 20th and the Autumnal Equinox occurs around September 22nd. If you didn’t get all of that, just remember it’s almost time for ‘Suns Out, Buns Out’.
BEST OF THE BLOG:
Best of the best this week on the North County Surf Blog- we broke out the big guns with deals on Reef, superstars like Julian and Jadson at the Quik Pro, sneak peek at the surf mid-week, and your new favorite taco joint- Haggo’s in Leucadia. See what all the cool kids are doing and check out the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
There are so many great surf zones in the world, it’s impossible to hit all of them before you croak. Hawaii, Outerbanks, Fiji, Nova Scotia, the Pacific Northwest, Costa Rica, Maldives, Tahiti, J-Bay; I can go on and on and on. One of the best though is Oz. From epic world renown sand point breaks to little known gurgly reef slabs- like Dee Why Point in Sydney. I know what the 3 surfers on the rock shelf are thinking- Surfer 1 “I’ll ride the outside wave”. Surfer 2 “No way in hell I’m riding the inside wave”. Surfer 3 “Have fun boys, I’m going back to the pub for a pint”. You can see more of this swell from the archives of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Optimist
Anarchist
Catalyst
