Okay, the first picture above isn’t that of Hurricane Earl waves, that’s because they aren’t all that spectacular as of September 1 at 8:00 in the morning. But when I was over in Indialantic beach this morning checking out the surf, the seagulls were putting on a pretty good show floating in the brisk wind just above the boardwalk.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Earl is out in the Atlantic ocean around 611 statute miles from my location as I write this page and is churning up waves of about 3 to 4 feet as you can see below.
Right now the storm is producing 125 mph sustained winds and is forecast to strengthen a little to 135 mph winds by tomorrow. Tomorrow Sept 2nd should be much better conditions for bigger waves when Earl moves twice as close to us as it is now and strengthens a bit. Originally Earl was forecast to reach a strong category 5 status with winds of 160 miles per hour, but the latest forecasts only put top wind speeds up to 135 mph which just breaks into the category 5 status by 1 mph.
While we will get to enjoy the big waves here in Florida for the next couple of days, people living on the outer banks of North Carolina are evacuating at this moment.
You can track the progress of Hurricane Earl here at the Weather Underground or at the National Hurricane Center.
I’ll probably stop by the beach again, and Java Surf for a coffee, tomorrow so, check back for more pictures of the surf kicked up by Hurricane Earl. Hopefully the waves will be a bit bigger and more fun for all you surf rats. My surfing days are pretty much over.