Back to normal in the surf- except that it’s Friday the 13th…
SURF:
Firing surf last weekend gave way to another good NW on Tuesday and then yesterday we had a little sneaker SW to mix it up with a dying small NW. Not a bad run of surf lately. 
Today we’ve got dying waist high SW/NW but the weather is clean, the tide is medium, and there’s maybe a chest high set at the best combo beachbreaks. We have a little bump up in the NW coming tomorrow for mainly the same size surf- waist high in north county OC/SD, maybe an odd chest high set in south county SD, and pretty small in south OC. That holds into Sunday morning. We also have a little weather on Sunday- more on that below. All in all not an exciting weekend. No reason to miss the Super Bowl, err, I mean the Tebow/Brady match up. Water temps are basically a 4/3 for the dawn patrol and a 3/2 in the midday sunshine.
Tides are a little more mellow this weekend; 2’ at dawn, 5’ at lunch, and down to 0’ at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
FORECAST:
After a lazy weekend of surf, we get a better NW swell for Monday afternoon with shoulder high sets in sets in north county SD/OC and overhead sets in south county SD. That holds into Tuesday. The rest of the week is looking pretty small unfortunately. Charts do though show some activity out in the Aleutians mid-week and we should have more head high+ NW next weekend.
The southern hemisphere shows a little storm organizing towards the 17th which may give us waist high+ surf towards the 25th. I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if it amounts to anything…
WEATHER:
Finally getting some activity around here. Can’t complain though- it’s been nice to get some surf with clean conditions and beach temps in the 70’s. Today we’ve got a mild Santa Ana wind event here in SD and a little more gusty up in the OC. Skies will be clear and temps at the beaches in the low 70’s. That backs off on Saturday for nice weather around town and then models show a weak low pressure system moving through on Sunday. We actually have a chance of showers! Don’t expect much- it’s only a chance- and a 30% one at that. Maybe 1/10th of an inch? That’s not going to fill up the reservoirs. But hopefully it’s the start of something- charts also show storms starting to take aim into Central and Northern California next week and maybe by next weekend we’ll get some winter storms around here again. So until then, just expect hazy sunshine next week and mild temperatures.
BEST BET:
Once the weak cold front moves through on Sunday, we should have clear skies and a little chest high surf on Monday afternoon- with south county SD seeing bigger sets. Hope you have the holiday off. NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Alex Tardy of the San Diego National Weather Service office has put together some facts about the 2011 southern California weather season. There was a lot of odd stuff that happened. In particular:-November 2011 rainfall was 300% of normal in San Diego
-Winds reached 100mph in the San Bernardino Mountains on March 20th
-The 9.1 earthquake in Japan March 11th produced currents in our local bays with tidal surges of nearly 4’
-Flash flooding and quarter sized hail hit the OC September 10th and 13th
-Waterspouts off La Jolla on December 12th
-Almost 2’ of snow at Wrightwood fell February 19th-20th
-117 degrees was recorded in Palm Springs August 24th and 102 in Carlsbad September 6th
So what does 2012 have in store for us? Alex is predicting the following:
-Cooler than normal, especially low temperatures and near the coast-Increased chances of frost through February
-Longer stretches of dry and mild weather but cool nights
-A dry February and March
-Low snow levels
-A few significant heavy rain events (no El Nino required!)
-Despite the wet October-November we had, the rest of the season should be near normal
Make sure to see Alex’s official report here for 2011 and here for 2012.
BEST OF THE BLOG:
By now you’ve seen more footage of the August 27th code red day at Teahupoo than you can shake a stick at. But you haven’t seen it ‘til it’s been shot in high def and in slow mo- this week’s Clip of the Day. All of that carnage in 10 gazillion frames per second. But mysteriously the video has disappeared off the web. Odd… And deals on Creatures of Leisure traction pads, board socks, and leashes- which are probably sold out by now. Long story short- if you snooze on the North County Surf blog- you lose! And of course the mid-week Surf Check and a more in-depth THE Surf Report- all of that and more in the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Gotta love the East Coast guys. Always pumped to surf- even when there’s no surf- which is a lot of the time on the East Coast. And when there finally is surf- conditions may not be the greatest. You’ve got Nor ‘easters, no parking at Reef Road, hurricanes, eggyOk- maybe I would. For more frozen treats, check out Rich McMullin’s shots at Surfer's Candy.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Just Plain AwesomeTebow’s BFF
8-3 Lifetime Vs. Munga
