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(Previous) 12/08/2004 (Next)
California Braces For Large Winter Swell.
A large storm is rampaging through the Gulf Of Alaska and will sending a hefty dose of WNW-NW swell to California.
Continued below...
The first signs of this swell are already starting to show on the SE Papa Buoy (#46006), which as of early Wednesday morning (on December 8) was running 24.9-feet of combined wave heights with a dominant swell period of 17-seconds. The graphic above is one of the unique features offered by Surfline and LOLA. It is called Height Vs Period and it lets us break down the combined wave heights into wave heights of the individual swell periods. Why is this important? (you might ask). Well this allows us to see the pure deepwater swell that will be heading our way...longer period energy will multiply wave heights as it moves into shallow water...so 15' of swell at 17-seconds (like we are seeing on buoy #46006 right now) could potentially be a 25-foot+ face at a standout break. Uhhh...yeah, that might be a good thing to know before paddling out.

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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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