7:15 am:   Much colder @ the beach.    An increased cold NW to N wind creating waves blowing by us offshore .  We have a minor wrap in with the wave size mostly about 1-2 feet . There could be some slightly bigger peaks, but again much of the swell is going by us to the south.   The wind is forecast to be N @ 20 knots this morning according to the early marine forecast .   Our local buoy is currently reading 4.9 feet at 6 seconds, up from yesterdays 3.0 feet at 10 seconds.   The water temperature is measured offshore at 66.2 degrees early this morning.  It’s likely cooler along the breach, estimated at 63 degrees this morning.  You can see the ocean live by viewing The Surf Station Cam Page here.

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7:55 am:  Early morning photos are up box #1 and you can see the N angle in the waves.   Check out how N it is with this look of data from the buoy offshore.  Crazy N angle!  So even though the wave height is larger, a lot of the swell is going by us the south.   Will South Florida get this swell?   The Bahamas?   Puerto Rico?  Probably so.    Here, we have a minor wrap in around knee to thigh high with maybe a few waist high range peaks, as of report time.  Very chilly at the beach.…

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12:30 pm: It’s much windier and blown out than the conditions we’ve been seeing the last few days, with waves in the 1 to 2 foot range. Our local winds are currently blowing out of the NNW @ 10 to 15 knots. Those side to onshore winds are adding a fair amount of texture and drift, with waves breaking a little bit all over the place. It’s looking to be in the shin to knee high range again with poor form and chilly breezes on the sand. Overall it’s just looking pretty disorganized and weak at report time. You can check out some midday photos in box #2 and our brand new YouTube video report here.

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Reporter: T. Strange 

5:30 pm: New early evening photos are up box #3 and you can see the N in the swell. It’s choppy as the wind is N, bumping it up.  The surf is trying to come up, but overall not much of an increase.   It should come up in the days ahead though

And this will do it until ealry in the morning when Darby comes in for your Sunday dawn patrol update….  over and out.  

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A bone-in-the-teeth blue norther kicks in on this Saturday. Wind will quickly rotate onshore on by Sunday, adding size to the surf early in the week leading up to Christmas. Looking way ahead, Dean extended the Surf Station Surf Forecast through the end of 2024, with a long-shot call for a moderate-size, multi-day hyper-long period (14-15 sec) ground swell (with offshore winds) arriving to start the New Year.

Here is a good link to accurately track real-time, near-shore wave height/period/direction and water temperature just off the NE Florida coast: the Fernandina Beach buoy. Located upstream (to the north) and closer to the coast than the St. Augustine buoy, it’s a good indicator of fluctuations in NE Florida surf conditions influenced by winter cold fronts. Here is an overview of a large-scale, real-time wind map to track the shifting winds associated with the fronts and lows that produce our waves.