Unstable Wx; Moderate Wind Swell

The wet weather forecast by the NWS has arrived much sooner than originally predicted. Light rain started yesterday, increased to heavier last night, and is clearing as of this morning. Weather to remain unstable through the weekend with heavy showers and snow in the Sierra predicted for the weekend.

The high tides are swamping any hopes for even moderate, consistent surf in the mornings. Low tides are best but there is no groundswell of note running, and the windswell is moderate. Possibly some waves this afternoon during low tide. One good thing so far, winds are very light. This should change over the weekend with the bigger Saturday storm making landfall.

The NOAA satellite images show a storm putting up gale force (40-55mph) winds (yellow circle on both images) with over a thousand miles of fetch aimed directly at the Cali coast. This should translate into a nice groundswell for us except that it should arrive in conjunction with a nearshore storm that is forecast to put up some big winds of it's own. (See StormSurf NPAC Surface Pressure and Wind animation.) Result? Storm surf.

I'll try to sneak in a session or two before the weekend. Next week is forecast to be dry and warming up. With the jetstream split on again, off again, on again and now fading to off again, we may or may not see the abundance of waves that have been our blessing these past few weeks when the storm production corridor was open.

Meanwhile our brothers and sisters in Hawaii have been enjoying a cornucopia of good waves and superb weather. Surf has backed off a bit to give them a rest and looks like it's going to crank up again soon. Who took my ticket?