Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Waves for Wednesday – Fading S swell and slightly better winds

Wednesday will have some rideable waves…but the winds will still add in some texture and keep things from getting too clean (we can't have that can we).

Our swell will be a mix of fading S swell (175-190) and some background NW windswell. Expect the S swell to continue to offer up some good sized surf throughout Wednesday…but the bigger waves will be less consistent by the afternoon as the swell backs down.



Average S-facing spots will be in the chest-shoulder high range…with a few shoulder high+ sets sneaking through on the lower tides. The standout S facing spots, mostly in Orange County but in a couple of other select areas as well, will have chest-head high surf with a few head high+ sets showing through the morning.

Winds will still be on the shaky side…not as bad as the last couple of days…but still with enough S-SW flow to add some texture to the more open/exposed beaches. Look for light/variable onshore to light/southerly winds for the morning. Forecasts are calling for the wind to be around 3-5 knots for the start of the day…with the lightest flow around 7-8am. W-WNW winds around 10-15+ knots will return by the afternoon.







I am a little more optimistic about the surf on Wednesday…mostly because of the wind forecast calling for the lighter flow in the morning. I don't think it will be great or outstanding…but if the winds do actually stay down we could end up having some fun at the good S-facing spots. I still think the points/reefs will continue to have the best shape…the beach breaks will be a bit more walled up and their long-shore current will still be pretty strong, which will make it hard to keep in place. A few of the better beach breaks might be ok…but only If you have something like a pier/jetty to break up the S swell lines. Expect some size still coming through on the bigger sets…but consistency as well as some of the bigger sizes will continue to back down through the afternoon.

Here are the tides…

07/07/2010 Wednesday
01:24AM LDT 0.5 L
07:49AM LDT 2.9 H
11:39AM LDT 2.4 L
06:17PM LDT 5.5 H

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Winds still up early, but out of the west and not to terribly strong, finally looked like a decent surf morning for most oc regions.
Hey adam whats your take on this really unusual cold winteriesh weather we've had most of this summer and spring?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

whoops sorry I didn't mean to delete both of those...just the third nonsense one.

Along the coast this summer has been brutal. It looks like the El Nino/neutral patteren is still screwing with us. The NE Pacific High-pressure is in place...but there is still enough moisture and enough of gap around the edges of the high to let some upper level low-pressures slip over the Pacific NW (and then trail NW-W winds down along the California Coast). Basically the spring pattern is still in place...and not moving on as it normally has in the past.

Check this out...this was posted on the NWS/NOAA forecast discussion page...

THIS HAS BEEN A VERY COOL START TO JULY. IN FACT...HIGH TEMPERATURE ON THE THE FIRST 6 DAYS OF THIS PAST JANUARY AVERAGED WARMER IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES BY ABOUT 0.5 DEGREES (76.3 DEGREES FROM JANUARY 1ST THROUGH 6TH AS COMPARED TO 75.8 FROM JULY 1ST THROUGH 6TH)...AND BY 5.5 DEGREES AT LAX (74.8 DEGREES FROM JANUARY 1ST THROUGH 6TH COMPARED TO 69.2 DEGREES FROM JULY 1ST THROUGH 6TH). AND...MANY DAILY RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES WERE SET YESTERDAY INCLUDING 66 DEGREES AT LAX WHICH TIED A RECORD AS THE COOLEST HIGH TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED DURING THE MONTH OF JULY.

they are basically saying that parts of January are warmer than what we have had so far in July. Man that is just messed up.

Anonymous said...

Dude screw el nino lets not have one of these anytime soon, thanks adam you da man.

HBD said...

Adam: Thanks for the deletion. I know which one you got rid of. Also, big thanks for the El Nino explaination as now I can tell my wife why we don't have beach weather. Pray for sun (and surf), or at least forecast it!