Southwest Groundswell Continues to Produce Fun Waves In Southern California This Week

MONDAY

We start the week off with some beautiful surf conditions across our south and southwest facing shorelines. I'll start with San Diego where 5-6-foot waves are anticipated along Coronado Beach with closer to 4-foot waves along SDSU Beach. Going further north, the stretch from Encinitas up to San Clemente will see a mix of 5-6 ft waves. Long Beach, unfortunately, misses out on most of the action but Venice Beach should see 4-5-foot waves for Monday morning. Finally, the south-facing stretch of shoreline in Ventura County should see a good mix of 3-5-foot waves during this time.

As we progress through the day, all locations mentioned above will see a slight increase in wave height. Periods also look great at around 16 seconds for essentially everyone with light/calm winds before noon. Onshore winds do pick up by the evening at around 15 mph so it's best to get your surfing in earlier in the day if possible. High temps look a bit cool in the mid-60's under mostly sunny skies.

TUESDAY

The southwest ground swell continues to build in through Monday night, eventually coming to a peak early Tuesday morning. Waves look about the same in size as Monday evening for Tuesday morning. That is, 5-6-foot heights for Coronado Beach, with 4-5-foot waves situated from Oceanside up to San Clemente. Venice Beach is still looking at 4-5-foot waves along with the south facing shore of Ventura County.

Waves decrease through the late morning and afternoon as the southwest swell begins to back off. Periods may drop by a second or two in the afternoon especially with a northwest wind swell picking up. The northwest swell may actually result in a slight increase in swell activity towards the evening, but I don't expect waves to return to their morning heights. Still, we'll finish the day with 4-5-foot waves in our best spots thanks in part to the wind swell. Winds look similar to Monday with another onshore breeze around 15 mph expected for the evening.

WEDNESDAY

By the afternoon waves will have dropped by an additional 6 inches or so along the south and southwest faces. The largest waves will be located around San Diego at 4-5-feet with smaller but cleaner waves in place for Oceanside and San Clemente at 4-feet. Ventura and Venice Beach can expect 3-4-foot heights for Wednesday morning. Periods still look good for most at 14-16 seconds along south and southwest facing shorelines. San Diego may start to experience weaker periods as the wind swell take dominance.

By the afternoon waves will have dropped by an additional 6 inches or so along south and southwest faces. San Diego is looking at 3-4-foot heights around this time with 4-foot waves staying in place from Oceanside to San Clemente. All other locations can expect 3-foot and under waves which should still result in some pretty good surfing. Periods remain at 14 seconds for most except San Diego where 10 second periods are expected.

THURSDAY

The southwest ground swell drops overnight Wednesday and becomes close to obsolete by Thursday morning. This will leave the northwest wind swell as the dominant force of energy across SoCal. San Diego is still looking at 4-foot waves but everyone else should expect 3-foot heights or under. Again, periods look weak along west facing shorelines at close to 10 seconds while southwest shorelines can still expect 14 seconds.

The afternoon doesn't look much different from the morning other that waves falling slightly further and winds picking up for the evening. 3-foot waves are still possible from Dana Point south and again along the south facing shore of Ventura County. The onshore wind doesn't appear as strong as Monday through Wednesday with peak speeds around 10 mph.