9/14/23 Report - This Morning Treasure Coast Surf Peaking Earlier Than Predicted At About 5 - 7 Feet. Killer Whales Off Fort Pierce.

 

Written by the TreasuureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Surf Chart For Vero Pier Area From Surfguru.com.

Here are the surf charts for the Vero Pier and Fort Pierce Inlet areas.  As you can see they are similar, but the Vero chart shows a very slightly higher surf for today - though not enough difference to be of very much practical significance.  The real on-beach difference will come down to angles and previous beach conditions, particularly the amount of sand in front of the beach and on the beach front.

It looks like the surf will reach a peak late today or early tomorrow.

The surf direction will be mostly easterly.  That suggests to me that there won't be a lot of widespread erosion around the Treasure Coast, but there can be areas, such as around rocks or obstacles, where there will be more.

I hope to get out to do an actual beach check later today.

Thursday Morning Surf Chart From SurfGuru.com.

The surf charts changed a bit since the last update late last night.  It looks like Lee is moving north more quickly now.  Today's surf is now predicted to be a little bigger, while the surf for this weekend will be smaller than predicted earlier.

If you look at the windy.com ECMWF model showing Lee this morning, the wind will be coming pretty much from the north along the Central Florida coastline.

Lee Thursday Morning with Windy.com Showing Winds.

Below is Lee after switching to the view that shows waves.

The above snipping shows the waves coming from Lee.

You might not be able to see it well, but perhaps you can see that the waves, or swells, are not coming from the same direction as the wind.  Of course, the wind affects waves, but there are other factors.

Here is this another SurfGuru.com report for the Vero Pier area.  

SurfGuru.com Thursday Morning Report for the Vero Pier Area.

Notice that the wind is now NNW while the swell is east.

When you get a difference like that, I've noticed the water on the front slope getting pushed more by the wind after the water has slowed going up the slope.  With the present conditions, you'll see the diminished water on the beach front slope being washed more to the south (from the north wind) after the incoming force has been slowed.  I could see how that kind of thing could cause beach scalloping under some conditions.

As I said, I hope to get out later to actually see a beach or two.  At this point I'm not expecting a lot of beach erosion - not enough to get down to the old material in most places.

The surf seems to be peaking earlier than was predicted a day or two ago.

---

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - What started out as a yellowfin tuna fishing trip ended with a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" for a group of eight boaters off the coast of Florida.

Jay Charron was on board his brother Alan Charron's boat, The Corkscrew, when he spotted a pod of killer whales swimming about 80 to 100 miles east of Fort Pierce.

"Normally you never see them out there. I've been out there 40, 50 years, off and on, and I've never once seen an orca on the East Coast," Charron told FOX 35 News.

Charron added that he and the rest of the crew noticed they were blowing near the surface before they saw the whales themselves...

There were two pods of two or three whales each, Charron said...

Source: Fox 35, Orlando. 

There was a video of the whales if you can find it.  I'll post it if I can find it again.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net