Hurricane force Atlantic low sending swell to Caribbean, East Coast, Europe
Hurricane force Atlantic low sending swell to Caribbean, East Coast, Europe
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By Charlie Hutcherson From Surfline
Over the weekend, low pressure rapidly intensified as it moved off the US East Coast and through the Western Atlantic. The storm developed and maintained hurricane force winds as it moved east underneath the Canadian Maritimes over the first half of the new week. The storm continues moving east over the Azores, weakening into midweek.
This set up a strong fetch of 50-65+ knot winds over the past few days that was aided by strong high pressure over the Western Atlantic. Satellite-based altimeters that measure sea surface heights recorded impressive seas heights during numerous passes over the storm, including one pass that measured seas over 61ft, a threshold that only a handful of storms surpass each year. And based on the many satellite passes analyzed, the storm and swell are outperforming model guidance considerably.
The US East Coast sees some of the swell make its way back east, biggest for Florida later in the week. The strongest slice of the swell is expected to head to the Caribbean with those on theeastern side of the Atlantic seeing a solid shot of westerly swell as well. Some of the islands start to see northerly swell fill in on Wednesday, rising and peaking with well overhead to double overhead surf over for the second half of the week before easing down over the weekend. North Atlantic islands, like the Canaries, Western Europe, and Northwest Africa see a more westerly swell rise toward the end of the week with generally favorable conditions as a prior solid shot of WNW swell begins to ease.
The issue in the Caribbean during this round of north swell is the aforementioned trade wind pattern and trade swell. The high pressure discussed above persists over the Western Atlantic through the week, extending over the Caribbean. This keeps elevated trade winds in place through the week for the islands, along with head high to well overhead trade swell in the water. So look for a mix of healthy trade swell and solid northerly swell at exposed breaks in the Caribbean over the back half of the week with select breaks open to the northerly swell, but sheltered from the trade winds, the jewels of the tropics over the coming days. And don’t forget, the Rincon buoy is back online and ready to let you know what is making its way into Northwest Puerto Rico.
IMAGE: LOLA wave heights early Tuesday morning shows the powerful storm pumping out swell.
By Charlie Hutcherson From Surfline
