Southern Hemi…
By NYBB on Aug 18, 2007 in SURF REPORT
SOUTHERN HEMI Whether you buy into the Southern Hemi ‘phenomenon’ or not, a 2-3 foot groundswell with 16 – 17 second intervals has begun registering on the HOTEL buoy as of 11pm this evening. Powerful storms that stall off the coast of Africa for extended periods of time are capable of sending long period groundswell to our shores via angular spreading, and with a little luck, we’ll have some fun punchy surf in the waist+ range by morning. But don’t take my word for it, get up off mattress reef and go have a look for yourself.
Not Souther Hemi…
From Hurricane Dean when he was approaching the Windward Islands.
Micah Sklut | Aug 18, 2007 | Reply
definitely not from dean. dean swell wont even hit the southern states probably till atleast the 19th or 20th. this southern hemi swell is from two storms that were parked off of africa for a few days.
spackledust | Aug 18, 2007 | Reply
My money is on that storm off Africa (8/7) that combined with high pressure forming a pretty solid wind gradient. I just don’t see how Dean produces that kind of energy and how it gets here that quickly. Credit to Mike Nelson at unsound surf and a few others who called it early last week. (*NYBB jumped on the bandwagon 6 days ago haha)
edit: I’m told surfline was also claiming it – their model was showing 3-4′ at 19 seconds for the 17th and 18th back on August 8th, although they admitted the model might have been over-calling it at the time.
“Much further out, a storm deep in the South Atlantic is looking good to send some long period swell lines around the 16th-18th for the region. Right now it appears that LOLA is overcalling the swell but we should see something plenty surfable and likely even fun for the better spots in the region so stay tuned.”
Ballbags | Aug 18, 2007 | Reply
OK. I retract my statement
After looking at it closer, Southern Hemi it is…
Micah Sklut | Aug 18, 2007 | Reply
Good call on that swell. That may have been the backround 2′-3′ we had been seeing down here in the beaches of central FL.
johndaboogs | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply
Ok… Looking further into this…
Check out the North Atlantic wave period map:
http://www.swellinfo.com/images/random/wave_per_aug19.png
I believe the long period swells currently along the east coast are both from the southern hemi and from when dean was traversing towards the windwards islands… Look at the direction of the long period swells. that are moving toward Florida/Southeast. This is in exact relation to the swell periods that are in the caribbean.
So, the long period swells that are just now reaching florida/southeast are from the tropical fetch.
Now, looking further to the northeast, there is a swath of longer period swells that looks to be from the southern hemi fetch. These swells sent some pulses towards northeast on saturday.
I plead guilty to not looking at last weeks north atlantic pressure maps… Anyone have em?
Micah Sklut | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply
Yeah, I’m know the historical data and charts are available somewhere on the web. I dug around last night but couldn’t find what i was looking for. If anyone can a link, please post it here.
For whatever its worth, this is what Mike Watson at Surfline.com had to say:
Ballbags | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply
good pulse out there this morning… they really pack a punch for small waves. could get really fun around here the next couple days.
spackledust | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply