QuikCAST
Surf Forecast - Southern California
5 Day Surf Forecast
Forecast
Updated:
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:54 PM
GMT
Surf Scale: 3 ft = waist high, 4 ft = chest high, 5 ft = head high, 10 ft =double overhead Swell Direction is direction swell is coming from. 90°=East, 180°=South, 270°=West, 360-0 = North
Southern California Surf Forecast (Centered on Dana Point)
Day
Trend
Wind
(kts)
Details
(Swell Number, Swell Size & Period, Arrival Time and Profile)
Waves
(Set wave max face height)
Swell Direction
Wednesday
5/14
Down
SW 5-10 early
Local windswell 2 ft @ 9 secs at exposed breaks
2 ft
310 degrees
Thursday
5/15
Up slightly
SW 10 early
Local windswell 2.6 ft @ 9-10 secs at exposed breaks
2.5 ft
310 degrees
Friday
5/16
Holding
S 5 early
New swell from the Gulf to 2.4 ft @ 12 secs
2.5 ft
305 degrees
Saturday
5/17
Up slightly
SW 5 early
New Gulf swell 2.7 ft @ 13 secs early at exposed breaks
3.5 ft
300 degrees
Sunday
5/18
Down some
SW 5-10 early
Gulf swell 2.3 ft @ 12 secs
2.5-3.0 ft
300 degrees
Extended
Outlook
Down
---
The North Pacific jetstream remains looking decent with a respectable flow pushing west to east over the dateline at 130 kts featuring a solid trough over the dateline pushing to the Gulf of Alaska with up to 180 kt winds flowing under it offering good support for surface level low pressure development. In response a late season surface gale is forming north of Hawaii Tuesday (5/13) with 40-45 kts winds expected to hold for 24 hours generating seas to 30 ft aimed well at California and points north of there. Possible swell to develop if all this occurs. Down south a very quiet pattern remains in effect with the jetstream split and displaced to the south, the southern branch flowing over Antarctic ice. A cutoff low is was off northern Chile Mon-Tues (5/13) and building some producing 45 kts winds aimed into the Southern California swell window but too far east to affect anywhere else in the US. Typhoon Rammsun peaked out on Saturday (5/10) 600 nmiles south of Southern Japan with winds to 135 kts, but too far away to have any real potential. Of note: The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is in the active phase, which has likely been fueling both tropical development in the far Western Pacific and the dateline-gale activity of late. It is to peak out late this week, then fade through next week. One more gale is schedule for the dateline next week before summer officially takes over.
