Plenty of surf at home

WEATHER TIDBITS

May is yesterday, June is the tune and we are locked in the gloom

room.

The first day of the new month saw ocean temps promptly warm up

five degrees.

You didn’t even have to drive anywhere if you didn’t want to --

the surf locally would do just fine, thank you.

Three- to 6- and occasional 7-foot barrels riding on a south

southwest groundswell (190 degrees) and a northwest groundswell,

winds well (305-310 degrees) peeled relentlessly all day Saturday and

Sunday.

The wind never blew more than 5 mph out of the south (180 degrees)

or it wouldn’t blow, period.

And the tides were compatible to every spot between Three Arch Bay

and Sammies.

Plus the swell intervals (all different), hooked up to create some

very interesting situations. The southern hemi was 18-second

intervals between set waves; then the northwest groundswell was a

shorter interval of 12 seconds.

And then piggybacking the northwest groundswell comes a flurry of

eight second wind swell peelers.

With that combo every spot fires.

The Queen of the Coast was peeling glassily at the cove with head

high nose-riding gems were putting major smiles on Tidbitter’s

wrinkled mug.

At the same moment, Dr. Bill Anderson was gliding across head

high, third point peelers at Malibu just down the road from the Con.

The Bu and the Con are word! Eric “Frog” Nelson has gotta be a

freak. I mean this in the best way. Frog, I mean, he was doin’ moves

out at St. Ann’s sandbar that have not been invented yet on land, at

sea or in the air.

Southeastern California has already kicked off the 2003 summer

“monsoon” season. Several cloud to ground lightning strikes on radar

from last Thursday and Friday along with some rain-bearing

thunderstorms from Flagstaff, Arizona to Prescott and down to Tucson.

The second named tropical storm “Bianca,” is swirling way down

there, about 1100 south southeast of the tip -- it’s at 14.2 north

and it’s in 86 degree water, creeping to the west at 6 to 8 mph

(somewhat slow for a Chubasco).

A new northwest groundswell is due tomorrow (Tuesday) and could

reach 6 feet at the Little Corner by the Sea.

Time for another date with the “Queen of the Coast” (in June to

boot!). Usually Rincon goes to sleep until October, way earlier like

early April. Yep, the call went through -- she said call before you

come so I’m outta here with my 9-foot 2-inch Costa Azul rounded pin

-- the thing glides and it wants a date with the queen.

* DENNIS McTIGHE is a Laguna Beach resident. He earned a

bachelor’s in earth sciences from UCSD and was a U.S. Air Force

weather forecaster at Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii.