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(Previous) 01/06/2005 (Next)
CALIFORNIA GETS A BIG WET ONE!.
A new winter storm is expected to grind to life just off the Southern California Coast and send in large dose of rain, wind, and junky storm surf.
Continued below...
You can see in the 5-day Forecast above that LOLA is calling for some large stormy surf on Friday. At first glance at the combined wave heights you would think that the XXL was coming to SoCal beaches. While it will be large-and-in-charge it likely won't be pushing 15-16' at your local beach break. The LOLA focal point for SoCal is placed OUTSIDE of the nearshore islands so that it can get a proper read on the incoming deepwater swell without all the interference from the local coastline and nearshore islands. So while deepwater seas may build into the 15'+ range it will get filtered as it moves into nearshore waters and we are likely to see still healthy 6-8'+ waves for the average spots throughout the region. Unfortunately for us it looks like strong onshore winds, short-swell periods, and a ton of rain will hamper rideable conditions at all but the most protected breaks. It is to bad that this system won't stall a little further offshore.

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WHAT IS LOLA?

LOLA is the world's only automated global surf forecasting tool. LOLA can forecast waves right down the street, or it can predict surf conditions at the top spots around the globe - breaks like Tavarua, Tahiti and Jeffrey's Bay.

LOLA uses the NOAA Wavewatch III engine (running on our own computers) with Surfline-modified data from various wind models (AVN, GFS, MRF). Then LOLA combines this information with empirical data we've programmed into her gained from over 30 years of surf and weather analysis here at Surfline.

LOLA also gathers real-time data from offshore buoys to measure wave pulses from storms around the world every hour. She taps into orbiting satellites to measure hurricane-force winds and tremendous wave heights in the heart of raging storms when huge ships are running for cover. She computes near-shore wave animations measuring detailed wave heights along the coast, taking into account how swells are distorted by offshore islands and the continental shelf.

When you add it all up, LOLA is the ultimate forecasting tool for surfers looking for timely, accurate and comprehensive information about waves.

Initially, we created LOLA as a proprietary tool for Surfline forecasters. But we decided to share the knowledge and give Surfline's Premium Members the chance to use LOLA themselves, to give them the best chance to score more good surf more often.

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