Northwest Wind Swell Moves In This Weekend - SoCal

Best Bets

- Friday morning looks like a fairly decent time to surf towards San Diego where 3 foot waves are possible along with light winds.

-Sunday morning, from San Clemente south, and again near Ventura could be a good time to surf. Winds looks light and waves range from 2-3 feet.

- The largest waves will occur Saturday morning south of San Clemente, especially around San Diego where 4 foot waves are possible.  Periods, however, don't look the best during this time frame.

FRIDAY

We'll start Friday morning off with lingering north and southwest ground swell from earlier in the week. Waves look like they'll stay around 2 feet in most spots for the morning with the coastline near LA seeing just 1 ft waves. San Diego and the coast up to San Clemente could see a few spots with 3-foot swells mixed in but other than that, waves look pretty small for Friday morning. Periods will range from 13 to 16 seconds across the area with winds remaining light and variable.

A new northwest wind swell comes through in the afternoon, bringing with it a slight increase in waves heights. We'll see waves come up by a little, but not much to finish the evening off. Waves between 3 and 4 feet are possible near San Diego but almost everyone else is still expected to see just 2-foot heights. As mentioned, this is a wind swell and periods look questionable. Right now, were still looking at 13 to 16 seconds for Friday evening but these lengths will rapidly deteriorate as we head into Saturday. A strong northwest, or onshore, breeze is expected with winds up to 25 mph possible.

SATURDAY

Winds continue blowing onshore overnight Friday, weakening period quality. Waves continue to grow, although not by very much. We'll wake up to 5-10 mph onshore winds with periods averaging about 7 seconds across the shoreline. More widespread 3-foot waves can be expected especially south of San Clemente and again near Ventura/Oxnard. 4-foot waves can still be expected around San Diego for Saturday morning. Light drizzle is another possibility for Saturday morning but this should clear up in time for the afternoon.

The northwest wind swell peaks early Saturday morning and decreases thereafter. On average, about a foot drop in wave height is anticipated for pretty much everyone except along south facing beaches which never receive any action from the swell to begin with. Periods don't look the best in the afternoon with most seeing just 8-9 seconds although there could be a few spots where 16-second periods may be mixed in. Onshore winds continue through the day with evening speeds around 10 mph.

SUNDAY

The swell continues dropping as we head into Sunday with the majority of beaches seeing just 2-foot waves. San Diego will likely hold on to 3 footers but that's about all we can expect in terms of decent wave heights. Winds don't look as bad in the morning with light and variable speeds at about 5 mph. Periods still look poor with most experiencing just 8 seconds.

The swell backs off through the early afternoon but may begin to increase as another wind swell is expected to arrive from the northwest. The second swell doesn't look as significant as the first and we probably won't see waves change by much; they'll rather hold steady at about 2-feet through the remainder of the afternoon and evening. Period quality increases to about 13 seconds for the afternoon but winds stay strong at 10-15 mph blowing onshore.