By Chris Cullen
It's September 22, 2014. It's Fall and everything has suddenly changed. Last week evidenced one of the most noticeable transitions from Summer to Fall, ever. Last week's big southern hemi swell and massive heat wave, which sparked wildfires, and torpedoed the Hurley Pro at Lowers, have both faded.
As for more Hurricanes? I have been asked by legends, board builders, and groms, and I will tell you: the hurricane swells have stopped for Southern California. El Nino or not, once a tropical system redirects into Mexico, you can call it over. The weather along the west coast from Mexico to Canada flips a switch, and changes. C2C's law comes into effect. Another significant tropical swell will not make it to Southern California's swell window, and therefore none of those hallowed swells of any note will grace its shores.
The weather and the swells have cooled dramatically. We finally got a few glassy afternoon surf sessions after a summer where the sea breeze blew out the surf, seemingly every afternoon.
We got some noticeable west wind and a touch of west ground swell last week. Wintertime breaks, especially in Central and Nor Cal, were on last week and other spots saw nice combo peaks instead of lined up south swell. The westerly swell tried to meet the sourhern hemi and became obvious as the south began dropping down from its near double overhead peak. The west swells last week prove the North Pacific bear has awoken from its summer hibernation and has stumbled out of its cave, yawned and swatted a few flies. The forecast models (and El Nino percentile predictions) show that the hungry North Pacific may be ready to go into beast-hunter mode. By next weekend the models indicate we will have our first overhead west-northwest swell hitting California's shore. All of sudden, right under our noses, after a final week of Summer glory, Fall has fallen in.
More variable conditions in store. From heat-wave glassy to Santa Ana winds. From marine layer southerly winds ushering in cold-fronts, and north-pacific ground swells to westerly wind and wind swells passing on through, to again leave us with high pressure offshore winds and/or hot and glassy delight. Fall offers a honey bear's feast of some of the most lively and best conditions California surfers could possibly feast on.
The Southern Hemi swells will continue for a while as the North Pacific shakes its sleepy head and sets its gaze on Northern Hemisphere surf spots. Fall is all that and more. A time to remember a glorious Summer, deliver its own season's epic surf and weather and point to the promise of what hopes to be a roaring winter surf season.
Posted by: Ghetto Juice at: 22 Sep 2014 21:17
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