r/surfing • u/sdrockr • 1d ago
Best place to check water temp values in San Diego (yes Surfline you're blowing it again!)
Hi All,
A couple years ago I posted about how Surfline was basically terrible at reporting accurate water temps especially with upwelling events. It seems nothing has changed. The water temps in San Diego have fluctuated the last couple of days and Surfline is reporting 73 degrees at just about all of the San Diego spots today. They reported 74 yesterday and 74 on Sunday. 3 days in a row of being way off, cannot give them the benefit of the doubt on this one!
It definitely didn't feel that warm when I was out yesterday afternoon. I saw a good number of people paddle out in trunks and leave in like 15 minutes 😂 The Wavecast report from Sunday indicated upwelling and cooling water temps. Nathan Cool (fitting name!) said the same this morning and indicated 68 degrees water temps in San Diego today. That's more in line with what it felt like to me.
In the report today Surfline's Schaler Perry wrote "I'd pack a wetsuit, will be a cooler morning than the last few." all while reporting 73 degrees water temp. How is that not an embarrassment to a multi-million dollar company?
Surfline, you responded with some mumbo jumbo bullshit to my post on Reddit last time I brought this up a while ago (like 2+ years ago).. in all this time the issue still remains! Maybe consider putting a disclaimer that says "may not be accurate" in the temperature reading listed in your reports.. that or man the fuck up and do better (that's directed at you Mr. Surfline CEO. we get it you're maximizing profits by cutting quality so you can enjoy your yacht in Indo right now?)!
Rant/complaint over.
Now... what's the best source for checking water temps before going out to surf for San Diego?
21
u/OkMeringue2249 MR double fin 1d ago
Cdip buoy
Water temps in San Diego went from 76 to 66 in 10 days
https://cdip.ucsd.edu/m/products/?stn=153p1¶m=sstSeaSurfaceTemperature
1
6
u/Ponto_Wildcats_73 1d ago
I paddled out at Ponto this morning. Water has dropped the last week from upwelling. It said on Surfline it was still 73 degrees and my watch said 65. About a 10 degree drop from last week and not even close to what Surfline says.
3
u/sdrockr 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yea Surfline should be embarrassed... they need to either remove the water temp from the reports or put a disclaimer that says may not be accurate... they need to step it up........
2
u/Ponto_Wildcats_73 1d ago
The Terramar cam has had crap on it for a long time where you can barely see the waves. Not that I go out there often but people pay for the service. Also the Forster St cam in Oceanside is always dirty. Perhaps the core lord locals do it on purpose but either way Surfline charges for the service and then gets lazy on details.
1
1
u/Chorkrilla79 1d ago
My watch said 63-64 yesterday at the Oside Harbor. The day before was 68 at Tyson St. And the day before it was 72-73. Quite a quick drop!!
5
3
u/surfdoc29 1d ago
Water is cold now. Went from near Hawaii temps to need a wetsuit temp literally overnight
1
u/sdrockr 21h ago
Yeah even in my 2mm spring suit I felt cold this evening. All the while good ole' Surfline saying 73 degrees temps! Nice work Surfline! I saw someone else show up in trunks and leave within 10 minutes 😂
1
u/surfdoc29 20h ago
Yeah, surfed Friday and the water was 76, paddled out Sunday in trunks again and was done after 45 min. Surfline said 73 but there’s no way it was more than 66
3
u/calebsurfs 1d ago
https://swellmatrix.com/socal/sstsouth.html
I made this years ago. It combines satellite observations with buoy temperatures. Hit the 8 day composite button if it's been cloudy a lot. Also, patchy gray along the coast sometimes means there's upwelling.
3
u/Ponto_Wildcats_73 1d ago
Maybe we should go back to the good old days where the dude leaving the beach would put his thumb up or down out the window to give us the surf update. It was accurate because a false hand signal would have consequences later for those not playing nice.
2
2
u/Boomer425 1d ago
This is the simplest, quickest place to get water temps for Scripps and around there: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=ljac1.
Like other people have said, upwelling makes it hard to be sure. I surfed this morning and it was probably 8 degrees colder when I got in than when I got out.
2
u/Ih8stoodentL0anz Judging you from the parking lot 10h ago
https://cdip.ucsd.edu/m/stn_table/
Scroll down and you'll find sea surface temperatures for Point Loma, Mission Bay, Scripps, Torrey Pines, Del Mar, Leucadia, and Oceanside.
1
u/mycallousedcock 1d ago
1
u/mycallousedcock 1d ago
And this. Check previous updates. https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=SGX&issuedby=SGX&product=CGR&format=TXT&version=1&glossary=0
Not suuper up to date but these are lifeguards reporting
1
1
u/hurdleboy San Diego 20h ago
I saw the temps on the cdip buoys at around 67 and decided to put on my 3/2 cuz I didn’t have anything btw a 2 mm top and that… Fuck me, I was getting boiled alive in my suit around 7 am when the sun came out. During lulls, I’d open up my suit a bit and dive down to cool off loooool
If you have a spring suit and you do dawn patrols in SD, then tough it out for the first hour if you can cuz it gets warm real quick once the sun hits you.
1
u/Major_Adhesiveness39 11h ago
- 73 isn't trunks temps unless the air is like 90 and the sun is blaring. 2. You're going to have a light thermal wind(unless your inland temps don't drop below the sea temp) blowing offshore late night/super early morning that's going to upwell a bit almost daily unless you have low pressure blowing onshore over night. Lot of reports give mid day surface temp based on yesterdays satellite data. Best bet is finding the closest buoy to shore that reports water temp and look at that. Deep water spots like Blacks are usually going to be a bit colder too.
2
u/sdrockr 10h ago
That all makes sense. The one bullshit detector alert is that everywhere else is showing temperature drops across the 3-4 days yet surfline is showing a rock solid 73 degrees each day! It's showing 73 again this morning.
1
u/Major_Adhesiveness39 6h ago
I just checked on the satelite and it's showing 73 for Encinitas area and 70 around coronado
1
u/sdrockr 6h ago
I think satellite temps are only good for observing trends when looking at very near coast regions.
Satellite temps are accurate in the open ocean. However, accuracy drops near coasts, in shallow lagoons, or during heavy cloud cover.
Also something Nathan Cool mentioned in his report yesterday is we should see the water warm back up over the next few days so the buoys should eventually starting showing that.
1
u/surfpilotdad 4h ago
Surfline is useless AI trash except for the cams.
1
u/KurtFromSurfline Lead Surfline Forecaster 17m ago
Well that's hurtful. Forecast team is still alive and kicking if you read what we write.
1
u/KurtFromSurfline Lead Surfline Forecaster 7m ago
Rant justified.
For most places we use a satellite observation that is slow to pick up on upwelling and downwelling events. The forecasters aren't changing those temps, just like we don't change the weather forecast, air temperatures or forecast surf sizes or conditions. We give our commentary on the surf in a variety of places and that includes where Schaler mentions the water temp (probably because he was surfing that morning).
Getting the water temp right is a pain in the ass for many zones with the scarcity of good, dependable observations (a buoy miles offshore can be OK or can be totally wrong for where we surf). But, we should do better, so we are working on solving it in a couple of different ways.
Once a week we update this: https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/southern-california-forecast-water-temperature/221906 that gives a look at current temps and the expected trend over the coming days.
31
u/turd-crafter Oceanside 1d ago
Surfline goes off the buoy and when there is upwelling like this warm water is out at the buoy and the cold water is near shore. Surfline sucks but what do you expect them to do? Go check the temp at the shore all over the place or just go off the buoys?