Monday, December 14, 2009

Another storm winds up, bigger swell late week


Rain returns Tuesday starting in the North Bay and working south by Wednesday. Look for strong south winds near the coast and copious amounts of rain from Marin County to points north. This system is going to kick up a strong WNW swell - building to 8-12 ft on Wednesday - with Thursday being the peak day - 15-18 ft deep water - and forecasted light winds. Swell direction 279 to 281 deg. Friday winds may stay light and swell will drop with sets several feet overhead. Winds look light this am from the south - leftover westerly windswell from the storm that came through over the weekend. cya in the water.

**Some Forecasting notes - the SF Buoy appears to be offline since the weekend - it may have pulled off it's location and is adrift. Bummer for checking inbound swells. I'll try and see how long it's going to be out. Also - the Quickscat satellite - which provides wind speeds and direction information over the ocean to NOAA has come offline and probably won't be repaired this winter. This is a big blow to forecasters and will most certainly limit (somewhat) the ability to accurately predict surf heights. There are other tools forecasters use - but the quickscat is a very valuable satellite.

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