Rip Currents Continue

Bertha continues to slowly meander out in the Atlantic sending ocean swells our way. This is great news for local surfers but bad news for swimmers heading to the beaches. Longer period swells continue to break on the beaches giving surfers ridable waves during what is usually the flattest time on the year. These longer period swells also bring stronger rip currents as well. This is very dangerous for swimmers. If you decide to go into the ocean make sure you are right near a lifeguard and obey any rules they issue. They know you are in trouble usually before you do.

Even though the near-shore waves aren't huge, they are carrying a lot of force and energy. The long period or long time period between each wave indicated swells coming from a far away storm. Think of you dropping a rock into a pond. When you drop it in there is a large splashing and confused area water moving around right at the center, but then faster, spaced out, more organized rings of water eventually fan out and get smaller the farther away they get form the center. So think of the center of the rock plunge as Bertha with large swells going in every direction near the center of the storm. Think of the outer rings as the longer period swells propagating from the center of the storm. Those outer rings are what is impacting the coast now.

The swells are spaced out organized long-period swells that carry a lot of energy since it is coming from a large storm. That wave energy builds up as it reaches the sand bars and breaks as larger size waves. During a long period ground swell, you could look out into the ocean and it looks flat as a lake, but all of a sudden a set of higher waves form as they near the sand bars and are forced to break. All that extra force of water rushes onto the beach and then rushes back real fast and causes strong rips to form. Be very careful swimming in the ocean this week. There is a great picture of what a rip current looks like a few posts below. Stay safe!!!