Waves, Winds And Rain In The Forecast This Weekend - SoCal

FRIDAY

Friday starts off pretty normal with lingering northwest ground swell from a previous system coming from the north Pacific. Morning waves look pretty nice and with good weather conditions, this may be the best time to surf. We'll see 4-5 ft waves near San Diego with Oxnard/Ventura likely getting in on 3-4 ft swells first thing in the morning. Other west facing shorelines will generally see between 2-3 ft heights.

Waves may slightly increase in the early afternoon but are expected to fall as we approach the evening. We should end up finishing Friday with about the same size waves as what we start with in the morning. Periods range between 13 and 14 seconds throughout the day – nice for surfing. A light onshore breeze is expected during the first half of the day with speeds no faster than 10 mph. By the evening, winds turn to out of the south with faster speeds (up to 15 mph) north of LA. We shouldn't see anything faster than 5 mph to the south.

SATURDAY

Things start to turn ugly Saturday morning as the first of storms moves in from the north. There may be a brief window of good surfing around San Diego early in the morning before the rain moves through. With the help of winds further offshore, waves grow by about a foot overnight Friday. We'll see 5-6 ft heights around San Diego with 4-5 ft waves around Ventura.

Waves grow even further as we progress into the afternoon. Between 7 and 8 ft waves are likely by 6 pm near San Diego with Ventura seeing 5-7 ft heights. All other west facing shorelines will generally see a 4-5 ft swell. Periods look decent at around 11-12 seconds, but winds and rain will likely be an issue. South winds between 5-15 mph will be present across the shore and rain should lighten up some but not enough. Surfing is not recommended.

SUNDAY

The swell reaches its peak by Sunday morning with 8 ft waves becoming more widespread around the San Diego area. Other west facing shorelines are looking at between 5 and 7 ft waves on average. Periods actually look pretty good during this time frame at around 12-13 seconds. However, rain and winds are still likely to be present making for another dangerous surf time.

By the afternoon and evening, rain may be finished up but the bacterial runoff from earlier precipitation will be an issue. On top of this, winds still don't look very good at 10-15 mph coming in from the south. Waves come down by several feet throughout the day with San Diego hardly seeing anything over 6 ft in size by the evening. We should experience a 2-3 ft drop in wave height across the area.