Tuesday, March 20, 2007 | Today NW swell is starting to build along the northern coast as SoCal stays stuck in small surf. That’ll change though over the next couple of days as the NW swell makes its way into the region and some southern hemi energy increases as well. We do though have some weather issues on tap, and winds will be shifting from onshore to offshore over the next few days. We have some light NW ground swell due this weekend. Another NW’er is due early next week, but this could be accompanied by some weather as well.
Right now, the California Buoy is checking in at 9 feet with 11-second periods. Closer to the coast, incipient forerunners are showing up with the Half Moon Bay buoy at 4 feet with 17-second periods, and the Cape San Martin buoy is at 4 feet with 17-second periods. The Point Conception Buoy is clocking some 19-second NW forerunners and Harvest is seeing sporadic 20-second stuff as well.
Overall, the swell energy in the water shows NW wind swell periods averaging 10 seconds from 300 degrees, infrequent NW ground swell periods running 19 seconds from 290, and SW periods running 12 seconds from 200.
In SoCal, wave heights are running waist high at most south facing breaks. West facing breaks are running knee high, but when the long-period forerunners sneak in, some rogue waist to chest high waves can be found—although highly infrequent.
Northern California and the Central Coast are seeing chest to head high sets at most west facing breaks, chest high at south facing spots.
The tide is recuperating to manageable highs, but we’ll start seeing some negative lows for AM sessions by week’s end, making timing for a mid-tide session still a bit tricky for a little while.
Water temperatures are averaging 58 degrees in San Diego, 58 in Orange County, 57 in LA, 57 in Ventura County, 58 in Santa Barbara, but still only 55 along the Central Coast and 54 degrees in NCal.
Winds as of 7:00 this morning were light and variable with a slight onshore element. Afternoon onshores are expected to reach 8-12 mph. A trough moving through the region tonight will affect Wednesday with…[more]
NW and SW build Wednesday, but conditions questionable…[more]
Small NW Saturday…[more]
Tracking NW for early next week, but more weather?[more]