Picnic Tables • Statistics for August

August: A Hint of Hurricane Pulse

August remains small but shows the first hints of life. Average swell height ticks up to 1.8ft (0.6m), the period is 8.1s, and favorable wind improves slightly to 10 percent. E swell jumps to a season-high 45 percent, with ESE at 28 percent, ENE at 13 percent and NE at 6 percent. A larger share of ENE swell now reaches the 1.5-3ft (0.5-1m) and 3-5ft (1-1.5m) range, but the overall picture is still summer-small.

The wind pattern remains stubbornly onshore. ESE is the top direction at 14 percent, followed by SE at 12, E at 11, SSE at 9 and S at 10. Those directions are all onshore or side-onshore for an east-facing beach, so most days stay choppy and disorganized. Still, August is when tropical storms and early-season hurricanes start to show up in the Atlantic basin, and a passing system can suddenly turn the east/southeast windswell into something with actual push. Water is a warm 28.6°C, air temps average 28.0°C, and it is one of the wetter months with 6.27 mm/day of rain.