A 'Swell' Independence Day Weekend on Southern California Beaches

Big waves and light winds mean good surfing potential, and possible dangerous conditions.

Image courtesy: AccuWeather.com

(LOS ANGELES) - AccuWeather.com reports a storm that first hit New Zealand last weekend with heavy wind and rain will produce big waves over the Independence Day weekend into early next week along many Southern California beaches.

Storm-generated waves that travel great distances across the ocean are referred to as swells.

It appears the swells will affect most south- and southwest-facing beaches of Southern California with a slight increase in wave action beginning late Saturday. Waves are forecast to reach their maximum during Independence Day into Monday of 6 to perhaps 10 feet.

The Channel Islands will offer some protection from the wave action along the South Coast of Santa Barbara County.

According to Meteorologist Mark Mancuso, swells from storms in the Southern Hemisphere often reach the beaches of Southern California. It takes the swells about a week to travel from New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific waters to Southern California.

The big swells will make for some decent surfing opportunities, but it will also create dangers for bathers in the form of pounding wave action and much stronger-than-usual rip currents. Water temperatures are generally in the middle 60s.

The big, long-period waves will lead to considerable overwash on some south- and southwest-facing shoreline roadway and property areas.

As far as sky conditions are concerned, the "June gloom" is forecast to continue this weekend with low clouds retreating from inland to coastal areas during the midday hours, according to AccuWeather.com Meteorologist John Feerick.

However, in many cases, the low clouds may continue to fail to burn off completely at the beaches in the afternoons. The cloudy conditions will then "reset" on a daily basis.

As high pressure builds inland, it may result in a faster and somewhat more effective inland to coastal burn-off of the low clouds next week.

Winds will generally be light along the immediate coast. However, a storm pushing inland over the Northwest is kicking up 40-mph winds offshore from central California northward to Washington into Saturday.