Tropical Swell Potential

The potential for the first tropical swell this year is exciting local surfers and bodyboarders across Delmarva. In the local surf world, the buzz is are we going to see waves from Bertha? Even though the storm is not very big, has been fluctuating in intensity, and very far away, we should still see some waves. Even if they are not very big, any fun sized swell is welcomed during the summertime.

The first sign of some swell energy should arrive Thurs. PM in the form of higher period groundswell. The swell period is expected to be 13-14 seconds, which is the time between each wave. The higher the wave period, indicates swell from a far away storm. 14 seconds is very high for this area, typically we see around 6 seconds. Heading into the weekend, larger set waves should develop and right now some wave models show some bigger sets chest high to head high possibly. The swell right now looks to peak Saturday and Sunday but may last longer if Bertha slows down as forecast. A chest to head swell in the summer would make many if not all local surfer happy.

Of course there are other factors that go into play for waves that big, such as tides, sandbars, swell direction, and local wind. These can either help or hurt the waves height potential. Meteorology plays a big role in wave forecasting but experience is something that increases someone's knowledge greatly. There are so many local surfers who have surfed and lived here for many years and have seen the ground truth from many weather/storm setups which produce waves. They have a good idea of what to expect and where to surf during certain storm setups. So of course you have some people saying it is going to be decent size and others that say it won't be as big as we think. Either way, there will be something to ride over the next few days and that is better than a typical summer flat spell.