Well that was impressive. A storm up north came barreling down here today and took more of an inland track over the western states- leaving little rain for us but lots of wind. Select wind recordings today had:
-San Nicholas Island- peak gust 65 mph
-Orange County and San Diego county beaches- peak gust 35 mph
-Johnson Valley- just over the hill from Big Bear/south of Barstow...
wait for it...
87 mph. That's category 1 hurricane wind folks. Not too shabby. Winds tonight have backed off of course and the short interval NW windswell is peaking.
Original forecast models had the Point Conception buoy peaking at 20' today but it beat the odds and crested at 23'.
The Torrey Pines buoy was supposed to hit 15' but only made it to 12'. Still pretty impressive.
The NW swell is peaking tonight and we'll have slightly cleaner conditions tomorrow but high pressure won't set up shop just yet- we'll have to wait until Wednesday for that. We'll have some overhead sets in the morning and just chest high sets on Wednesday.
Tides the next few days are about 1' at sunrise, 5' mid-morning, down to 1' mid-afternoon, and back to 4' at sunset. Tomorrow we'll have clear cool conditions and winds from the N about 15mph in the afternoon. Air temps should also hit 70 at the beaches and hold into Thursday.
By Thursday night we have another weak storm moving through the inland western states and more low clouds for us and NW winds again- only about 1/2 the strength of today. That lasts through the weekend. And with all the NW wind, expect the water temps to plummet- which sounds almost impossible since we already have cold water temps here hovering around 58 degrees. San Fran actually is 50 degrees and the San Pedro L.A. buoy is 54. So I guess 58 isn't that bad. But I do expect it to hit 55 by Wednesday.
Better hit the new
Rip Curl shop near Swami's and pick up that 5/4/3 you always wanted.
That next weaker storm later in the week will also kick up some chest high NW windswell again towards Thursday. After that it's looking like small waist high+ NW windswell through early next week.
Good news is that the southern hemisphere kicked up a pretty solid storm yesterday but it was just on the edge of our swell window. We should get some head high sets filling in towards Saturday into Sunday.
After that, nothing really jumps off the charts in the southern hemisphere but there are a few little swirly things down there that may turn into another swell maker. Hopefully by the 3rd week of April. Until then, enjoy the windswell tomorrow!
