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LAST BLAST
East Coast rebounds from dismal February with end of winter blowout
"It's finally starting to warm up," Pipe charger and OBX tubeseeker Brett Barley laughed. "You don't get a brain freeze after two waves...it's more like three." The beaches of Long Island are another story.
From the Northeast all the way down through North Carolina, this El Nino winter is going down as one of the coldest in recent history. And although "January was shot," according to OBX local Brett Barley, "February was consistent but March has been firing." And just as the surf began showing good face, the water temp finally jumped up above the 40-degree mark.
"It's definitely one of the most frigid winters in a long time," Outer Banks lensmen Matt Lusk admitted. "There's been a lot of cold north wind days that never cleaned up but over the past few weeks we finally got some good swells. Even the [Pamlico] Sound froze over in parts."
One OBX stalwart steers clear of the northern part of the stretch and it's not because of the ice.
"Anytime there's a north swell, I only surf the Lighthouse," Barley disclosed. "You can get double and triple barrels there. Whereas S-Turns is more like one and done."
So with the recent rebound in surf quality we asked Surfline Forecaster/Outer Banks local Kurt Korte to break down this end of winter run of surf. Here's what he revealed:
"It was pretty bleak for East Coast surfers during much of February. Luckily, over the past few weeks we have seen our El Niño induced storm track provide some solid days of surf for those freezing in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. These systems followed a track similar to what we said in our El Niño Outlook and would expect during a typical El Niño winter: low pressure taking shape along the Gulf Coast, pushing across Florida and strengthening through the western Atlantic towards the Canadian Maritimes.
Another ingredient that has been in place with the past several systems is a blocking high pressure over NE Canada and the northern Atlantic. In this scenario, low pressure is prevented from quickly exiting into the north Atlantic, which can set up a more prolonged windswell/swell event for spots along the East Coast. This is what happened during late February and again late last week."
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