How are things on the west coast?
“To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” —Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
How are things on the West Coast? Well, the answer to the question begged by Paul Banks of Interpol in their song “The Heinrich Maneuver” — which coincidentally enough is a reference to a character in Don Delillo’s novel White Noise, which Jackson recently wrote about, and is back in the news again because of its correlation to the toxic train spill in East Palestine, Ohio and the recent release of the film adaptation by Noah Baumbach — is they’re interesting…especially if you like weather and synchronicity.
Southern California is under its first blizzard warning in history tonight — although the National Weather Service Twitter account is still trying to sort out the wording on if that’s actually accurate or not. Regardless, the intent is there: It’s cold, it’s windy and the rain and snow are here. I surfed the HB pier yesterday and had a rare Timmy Reyes sighting which made me feel like I was on an O’Neill Strike Mission to Alaska every time I looked over — air and water in the low 50s.
Now the reason this is all interesting to me is because I have become a certified Weather Boy. Most surfers over the course of their ocean education accumulate a keen sense for the atmosphere and the different signs of swell and weather hidden in plain sight for us and we become junior meteorologists of our local breaks — able to tell wind direction, water texture and barometric pressure readings by the sway of a potted rose. And as in-tune as that sounds, I have recently upgraded myself. I am now a card carrying certified devout follower of Mark Sponsler and his Storm Surf website and YouTube channel. I recommend you get into it (new episodes every Sunday night) if you love weather and want to know how to read the charts — which is a little bit like combining science and mysticism to formulate forecasts for surf and weather.
Currently, under Mark’s guidance, we’re closely monitoring the Madden Julian Oscillation (the MJO) and watching with hawk eyes for western anomalies that send Kelvin waves across the Pacific, breaking the La Niña spell we’ve been under for nearly three years. And good news my friends: It’s happening! The waters off Peru and Ecuador are starting to cook thanks to some hard working Kelvin waves and the cold water ice bath that’s been the Pacific is getting pinched out by the warm. That is a great sign for next fall and the coming years. Stay tuned though: the Gods are still at work.
This current storm hitting California now is La Niña’s last desperate gasp. It’s a bit of counter punch from the storms we had in December and January. This counter is the result of a split jet stream and a big old high pressure in the middle of the Pacific (a trademark of La Niña) which forces gales that develop north and through Alaska and the Pacific Northwest creating a backdoor front, which is now heading south and bringing all the freezing cold air it accumulated with it. So you get snow in SoCal!
Now the unfortunate thing with being a Weather Boy is that I am also in the know of bad news first: like the fact that the high pressure that split the jet and pushed this storm north to gather all that cold air is the same high pressure that has swell development in the North Pacific at a standstill and why the long term California and Hawaii forecasts look so grim (again, literally the last gasps of La Niña) — which, is why we don’t have many surf stories this week and we’re at home reading and watching movies. Welcome to spring: cold air, rain, wind and small surf.
So, the final answer to how are things on the West Coast? They’re great for reading and watching movies this weekend! Which is an area we’ve got you covered. See below for a sampling of the films and books we’ve been sending your way the past few months. But do your homework, El Niño is coming. Eventually. —Travis Ferré
[Image Above: CFSv2 model: 3 month forecast for 850 mb winds, MJO, Rossby, etc]
