Overlapping S-SW swells continue to push in from moderate SPAC storms while mixing with steep angled shots of NW swell.

Central America and Mainland Mexico Short-Range Surf Forecast

The SPAC continues to stream out a series of S-SW swells that will overlap as we move throughout the week…and some more that arrives as we head into next week.

Again we are in a pretty typical pattern of late Summer, early Fall for the Southern Hemisphere. There are storms, but they still aren’t showing the full intensity of what we will see when that side of the Pacific really moves into the winter mode.

Basically for the next 7-10 days we are going to see a train of playful to moderate sized S-SW swells, each one arriving as the swell before it starts to fade…so there may be some smaller days as the swells transition, but each incoming swell is forecast to bring in about the same amount of energy. So we will have 2-3 feet of deepwater S-SW swell (180-220) from all of these swell pulses…with periods around 14-17 seconds, depending on which side of the incoming (or fading) swell you are surfing on. With those sort of deepwater sizes we generally see surf in the chest-shoulder high range with some head high sets at the average exposed spots, with a few bigger sets at the better than average breaks. Top spots, like those deepwater breaks that really focus the energy will have overhead sets with some waves going a couple of feet+ overhead. Freak spots like Puerto always have the potential for bigger waves to sneak through, particularly on the longer-periods as the new swells show up.

As always for more details on your favorite spots and regions in Central America and Mainland Mexico check out the links below…you can drill down to a specific break and get a custom forecast, targeted weather, tides, and surf conditions dialed in for that particular spot.

Costa Rica | Nicaragua | El Salvador | Southern Mexico

Long-Range Surf forecast Central America and Mainland Mexico

Long-range forecast charts don’t have a lot going on…but every time it looks like the storm track is about to go quiet it manages to pull together another semi-decent storm.

Right now the SPAC has three little low-pressures that are moving out from under New Zealand…they move out into the more open South Pacific and sort of fall apart, almost like the wide open areas of ocean are too much for it and they expand so fast they become disorganized. Still…even with the systems not making it all the way across the SPAC they do manage to put together some SW swell that will be heading our way for the upcoming weekend and early part of next week. It doesn’t look much bigger than chest-shoulder high for most of the better spots…but at least there is a shot that we see rideable if not fun-size waves through the last part of February. We’ll keep an eye on the storm track and let you know if anything new starts brewing up.

The Next Mainland Mexico and Central America surf forecast will be updated Friday Feb 17, 2012

Adam Wright
Surf Forecaster
http://surf.solspot.com