Wednesday, May 19, 2010

More storms, wind, rain, swell....

***UPDATE 9PM - Small NW filling in at almost 3 ft 14 at 300 - also small S at 2 ft 17 at 180. Nice little mix. Not sure where this NW came from as it wasn't on the charts at all - but given storm activity to our north, not completely surprising. Winds coming on strong out of the northwest - nothing good can come from that! HUGE swell hitting outer Oregon Buoys - saw some readings in the 30ft at 14 sec range - that's freaking huge for May. I think the incoming swell for Friday (see below) may be way under called size wise - given the readings up north. I'll keep an eye on it and you can probably expect me to upgrade the size for the weekend.

From earlier today> They're running the Quicksilver Big Wave Invitational right now in Chile - in what looks like pretty solid 12-15ft surf - that's our south swell for this coming weekend and into the following week. I think the swell will start to show up here on Sunday - with 3-4 ft 21 sec energy from 185-195. Period will drop to 16 seconds on Sunday and Monday with size staying about the same 3-4ft (deepwater). At the same time, a late season, fairly powerful (but close to us) low pressure system in the gulf is kicking up mid period windswell/swell from around 306 - 9-10ft at around 11, maybe 12 seconds. Look for the nw swell to actually start showing Thursday and continue thru Monday. Weather going to remain a big issue. We have light winds this morning - but winds are forecast to really blow out of the NW starting Thursday right on through the weekend. Very brisk, cool temperatures are forecast as well - in fact we have potentially some frost possible late in the weekend in the north bay valleys - as overnight lows will be quite chilly for May. The weather stays cool and very unsettled through middle of next week - as low pressure remains parked in the gulf rotating energy through the central/north coast giving us some rain later today and then again possible on and off through Sunday. It remains a challenge to work on your boardshort tan for those south of the border adventures you have planned this summer. Should be plenty of surf to ride starting about Friday - it's just going to require some good local knowledge on what breaks work best. cya in the water.

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