Hurricane Florence is impatiently anticipated by surfing community of the US East Coast. It is supposed to hit near Outer Banks, but there is significant air movement inland too. And, it looks like it has something for the Great Lakes surfers. Let's try tracking surfing forecast and conditions on the Great Lakes surf spots with web cameras. "Hurricane hype center" is coined by Ben Gravy, check out his video blog entries in the material below!
Judging by Google's Hurricane Florence page the storm is pretty much dissipated after 4 days in Carolinas. Yet, GLERL weather maps suggest there could be stormy waves on the Lakes Thursday evening and through the weekend. Today the map indicated some waves in Grand Bend, ON and Holland, MI, so yes, there were some little waves there, seemingly not much to surf though.
Not sure when and how, though. GLERL does not show much waves yet up to Sep 18 and then there no data further.
September 11
Tuesday September 11 does not seem to promise much super-spectacular, but there is some potential of humble 3 footers at Eastern corner of lake Erie. That Pleasant spot near Port Colborne may get, well pleasant indeed. And the US coast all east from Mentor, OH may also work. Wish there were more web cameras there.
North of Lake Superior may also work a bit.
And the Hurricane did not hit the US coast much yet. So yeah, let's keep watching.
September 10
Here how the end of the day looked like:
Should have been a good day in Western corner of lake Ontario. That is Toronto, Hamilton, Fifty Point; US coast too. Web cam for the latter did actually show some soupy motion of the water. West coast of lake Huron could have also been decent. Some small waves were caught on webcams in
Chicago
Ogden Dunes
Indiana dunes
Aren't they gorgeous?!
September 9. 8:30 EST
Morning September 9 is definitely good for surfing Lake Michigan Mid West - South West shores and lake Erie mid to West both Canadian and US shores. Good chances fro East, South East shores of lake Superior, Huron, Ontario.
Waves are forecasted and confirmed with webcams from Sheboygan
and to the Dunes on the South. For Sheboygan (6 ft in the morning going down gradually to 4ft during the day in the forecast), should be even better for Milwaukee (4-5 ft pretty much all morning, too bad their webcams do not work for me) and Chicago (7-8 pretty much the whole day).
The Dunes look absolutely fantastic now and that's projected till 5pm.
September 8. 11:00 EST
Closer to noon September 8 GLERL nowcast maps are going into green territory for South East corners of lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie - that means up to 7 feet; and patches of up to 3-4 ft South East of Superior and Ontario. In Canada waves subdued on Grand Bend, but still on Hamilton/Fifty Point. In the US things go better for Sheboygan, Milwaukee, Chicago, Ogden Dunes, Indiana Dunes; Also Check out Mentor and other spots on South East coast of Erie.
September 8. 8:30 EST
In the morning of September 8 GLERL nowcast maps were showing a bit of prospective surf around 4-5 ft high in the South East corners of lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie; and patches of up to 3-4 ft South East of Superior and Ontario.
In the evening of September 7 GLERL nowcast maps were showing a bit of prospective surf around 4-5 ft high in the South East corners of lakes Michigan and Erie; and up to 3 ft going straight to South on Lake Huron.
Indiana Dunes still curly, but not as good as yesterday
Sheboygan is getting fuzzy. Not as promising as yesterday.
Overlook for the US East coast and general path of the hurricane by Ben Gravy
September 6
Kicked out by Ben Gravy's video actually. He showed the weather map with quite a bunch of air flows rotating around the Great Lakes.
In the evening of September 6 GLERL nowcast maps were showing a bit of prospective surf around 4-5 ft high in the South East corners of lakes Michigan and Erie; and up to 3 ft going straight to South on Lake Huron.
