First hurricane swell of the season to bring waves

The first hurricane swell of the season is on its way and will produce waves here on Sunday and Monday, an early showing for a tropical storm as Hurricane Celia makes her way to our coast.

Last night, Celia was upgraded to a category 5 storm, but weakened a bit down to a category 4 this morning. Here in Orange County, the waves won’t be huge – but will reach the 5-foot+ range for many beaches, with some overhead waves by a couple feet (7-to-8-foot range) at good spots and even and larger at top spots such as the Wedge and other beaches of North Orange County, said Surfline.com

As with any busy weekend and warm days with waves, novice swimmers should ask a lifeguard about beach conditions and use caution while in the water, keeping an eye out for rip currents.

Beach weather shouldn’t be affected much from this storm – we’ll still see the overcast mornings, pleasant afternoons at the coast this weekend, Wallis said.

At the same time, a southwest swell will be showing, so two swells will be running at the same time, meaning waves will be showing along the entire coast. The surf will be strongest Sunday and Monday, tapering off Monday night and Tuesday.

A surfer finds the tube at the Wedge in Newport Beach where the waves were big thanks to Hurricane Lane in 2000. File photo by Michael Goulding

How do you tell the difference between a tropical swell and a regular south swell?

Surfline.com’s Chief Forecaster Sean Collins explains:

The way to tell which swell is hitting your beach is to time the swell period between successive waves as they pass a stationary point like a rock, pier piling, or something staying still in the water. The Southern Hemisphere swell will have a period of 15-17 seconds between waves and probably 2-3 waves per set. Celia’s swell will have a period of 10-13 seconds between waves and there should be many more waves per set, probably at least 5-8 waves per set when they come in.

“You have to have a bit of a keen eye to pick that up, but its certainly doable,” said forecaster Kevin Wallis.

The hurricane is 1,200 miles away from our coast. Mexico is already seeing waves from the storm, and surf is expected to slam Northern Baja later this weekend.

Hurricanes typically weaken as they move north toward California this time of year because they travel over cold water, but Celia has been on a westerly track well to our south and over very warm water the last couple days. Hurricane Celia is tied for the strongest East Pacific June hurricane – with Ava – that happened in 1973, said Wallis

“Very notable to have a storm this strong in June, but the storm is also fairly small, which will limit her swell overall potential. Still, looks like a fun weekend,” Collins wrote in an e-mail.

The hurricane and southwest swell is good news for surfers competing in the PacSun USA Championships at Trestles on Sunday and Monday. Read about that here.

If you’re headed down to San Diego, check out reporter Gary Robbins’ blog about how the surf will be affected down there.

First hurricane swell of the season to bring waves is a post from: OC Beach Blog

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