7:15 am: The waves look smaller early on this new years day.   Smaller surf with the wave size at 1/2 a foot to 1 foot.     Our local winds are offshore NW pushing in much cooler air.  The surface conditions are glassy near shore with the offshore winds.   The  marine forecast is calling for increasing NW offshore winds today.  Our local buoy is currently reading 2.0 feet at 3 seconds , down in size from yesterdays 2.3 feet at 10 seconds .  The water temperature is measured offshore at 61.9 degrees early this morning. You can see the ocean live by viewing The Surf Station Cam Page here. You can also see some early morning photos here.

7:55 am:    Early morning photos are up box #1 and you can see we have much smaller waves to start out the new year.   Way smaller overall with waves shin to knee high for the most part.  Offshore winds so clean, and sunny skies make for a nice looking day at the beach shaping up, with much cooler air on the way….

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3:15 pm:  New afternoon photos are up box #2 and you can see the waves are very small.    The wind has turn onshore making for now semi-choppy surface conditions.    Small and semi-choppy with knee high set waves is the call as we head toward Wednesday evening…

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Dean’s Surf Station Surf Forecast calls for surf to remain rideable as it gradually trends downward this week. The January 2025 will see a series of cold fronts push through every 3 days, with progressively colder to frigid air masses invading Florida. Surf temps north of the Cape will drop into the upper then mid-50’sF (potentially low 50’s St. Auggie northward!) by mid-month. Will there be any ice cream headache waves to go along with the Arctic outbreak? Maybe… but it may be so cold it won’t matter!

Here is a good link to track near-shore wave height/period/direction and water temperature just off the NE Florida coast: the Fernandina Beach buoy. Located upstream (to the north) and closer to the coast than the St. Augustine buoy, it’s a good indicator of fluctuations in NE Florida surf conditions influenced by winter cold fronts. Here is an overview of a large-scale, real-time wind map to track the shifting winds associated with the fronts and lows that produce our waves.