Hurricane Gonzalo is kind of a big deal…

Hurricane Gonzalo just reached Category 3 strength making him a major hurricane. He’s forecast to continue to strengthen into a Category 4 Hurricane tomorrow. He’s very well put together and is feasting on all the heat stored up down here. There’s also a considerably large cold-front sweeping across the Eastern US. Between the two we should have plenty of surf for a week or longer. Tomorrow and Thursday should be the biggest. With hard south winds, several hundreds of miles of Puerto Rico coastline should be firing. Spread out and don’t fight with each other. If Hurricane Gonzalo keeps his current forecast path, he’ll be his strongest right in our swell window.

Rincon: We should be head high plus tomorrow with glassy conditions on the North side of Rincon. With the storm being as close as it is, we might see some doubled-up conditions. Thursday will probably have the best form since the weird double-up should have got cleaned out by then. Friday will drop off a little bit to probably waist to chest high again and keep that size through the weekend.

Isabela/Aguadilla: As long as the spot doesn’t face west, just about everywhere should be raging tomorrow. Several spots might be maxed out though and suffer from the double-up issue tomorrow as well. Thursday will be cleaner and still overhead. You’ll stay chest to head high through next week. The winds will eventually go back to East into the weekend and beyond, so enjoy the next two days and the offshores.

Get Ready to Surf! Hurricane Edouward Blows Up!

In an earlier post I was complaining about the strong windshear and dry air in the Northern Atlantic. Well this storm survived the gauntlet and found him self in a low shear and high ocean heat on the other side of the wind shear force field. The result – Hurricane Edouward may become the first (and possibly only) major hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic Season. This is a real Hurricane people. A solid wind-field, low pressure dropping by the minute, and nothing but open water around him. He will give some parts of Puerto Rico almost an entire week of waves.

What Kind of Surf to Expect:

Rincon: Hurricane Edouward is not predicted to pass 60 degrees West so NW swell is out of the picture. His movement will throw most of his swell everywhere but Rincon. The swell is mainly from the ENE to NE angle, but the period is forecast to be in the 12-14 second range. Rincon can expect to have some glassy waist to chest waves with some head high sets mid-week with fading conditions through Friday.

Aguadilla/Isabela: You will be on fire! As early as Tuesday expect head high plus surf with glassy conditions every morning. The winds may stay light most of the day and glass off again at night. The swell will pretty much rage through the week after that with some double overhead surf at some spots. Smaller leftovers will probably linger through the weekend.

Arecibo, San Juan, and Fajardo: Pretty much the same forecast as Aguadilla/Isabela area except you will see the swell sooner. You will also get the brunt of the swell so a lot of places will be working!

Check the automated model forecast below using my custom viewer. It updates itself every model run to keep you up-to-date on the predicted swell.