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Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006 | Today the combo of NW and SW swells continues. SW will be on the decline later today, but winds picking up in the outer waters will keep the NW wind swell going into Friday. The front associated with these winds is bad news condition-wise for Friday, then winds shift to another Santa Ana this weekend. Saturday still sees some waves, but Sunday should see a dramatic decline with our next southern hemi swell due early next week. We’re also watching Typhoon Yagi near Japan, which could bring us some waves by the 30th.
Right now, the California Buoy is checking in at 4 feet with 9-second periods. Closer to the coast, the Half Moon Bay buoy is at 9 feet with 10-second periods and Cape San Martin buoy is at 8 feet with 10-second periods.
Near-shore buoys in SoCal waters are showing a good deal of southern hemi SW swell with 3.1-3.6 foot seas having 16-17 second periods.
Overall, the swell energy in the water shows southerly periods averaging 16 seconds from 190-200 degrees and NW periods running 10 seconds from 310 degrees.
Note that like recent days of our SW swell, the long-period nature of the southern hemi energy will make for some dissimilarity in size between south facing breaks of varying bathymetry. Breaks with steeper bathymetry that shoal well and refract the southern energy ideally will see bigger sets than the slower, longboard breaks.
Additionally, these long periods can produce some deceiving lulls at times; many waves may look surfable, while every now and then sets could roll through that produce waves far greater in size. The swell combo in the water now may also increase the risk of riptides, especially during the outgoing tides.
In SoCal, wave heights are running chest to head high at most south facing breaks with occasional pluses at standouts. West facing breaks are seeing chest to head high sets as well, yet southern SD is seeing sets well overhead. There is though some island blockage affecting the OC region today due to the significantly steep angled NW.
Northern California and the Central Coast are seeing head high surf at most west facing breaks, two to three feet overhead at standouts with good NW’erly exposure. South facing breaks are running chest high, bigger at times at breaks able to pull in some NW diffraction action.
The tide is swinging rather high for early to mid morning sessions, now that we’re fully entrenched in a tidal swing due to a New Moon Friday. This spring tide can tend to slow things down a bit, especially around…[more]
Winds as of 6 this morning were light and variable most everywhere. The offshore gradients have continued to weaken though, and onshore winds are expected to reach 8-12 mph by noon, and up to 15+ this afternoon. Tonight, a nasty looking, cold frontal system will be diving down the coast, kicking up winds in its wake. NW winds could be quite strong…[more]
Water temperatures are averaging 68 degrees in San Diego, 67 in Orange County, 66 in LA, 66 in Ventura County, 67 in Santa Barbara, 60 along the central coast, and 57 degrees in NCal. With stiff NW winds blowing in the outer waters now, which will likely continue for another 24 hours, we could face an upwelling event by…[more]
Friday sees waves, winds…[more]
Some SW to last into weekend…[more]
Southern hemi SW 25th through 27th…[more]
South swell due on the 28th…[more]
Tracking possible typhoon swell for 30th…[more]