Today brings north winds of 15 to 20 knots rising to 20 to 25 knots with gusts up to 40 knots this afternoon across the coastal waters. Seas measure 6 feet with wave detail showing northwest waves at 6 feet occurring every 9 seconds. Patchy dense fog is expected this morning along the Mendocino County coastline. Inland areas remain under a heat advisory with temperatures projected to reach 99 to 103 degrees in Redwood Valley, Hopland, and Ukiah.
For Mendocino Bay today, the first low tide occurs at 3:41 AM measuring -0.21 feet, followed by the first high tide at 10:20 AM reaching 3.81 feet. The second low tide comes at 2:41 PM at 2.22 feet, and the second high tide arrives at 9:08 PM climbing to 6.64 feet. Sunrise is at 5:48 AM and sunset at 8:42 PM.
Recent observations from buoy 46213 at Cape Mendocino show significant wave height of 7.9 feet with a dominant wave period of 7 seconds and average period of 6.7 seconds. The mean wave direction is NNW at 338 degrees true. Swell details include a swell height of 3.3 feet with a period of 16.7 seconds coming from the south. Wind waves measure 7.2 feet at 7.4 seconds from NNW. The average wave size is approximately 7.9 feet.
A gale warning remains in effect through Saturday evening for waters from Point St. George to Cape Mendocino from 10 to 60 nautical miles. Near-gale to gale force northerly winds continue through early Saturday with large and steep seas expected. Winds will gradually diminish this weekend with seas dropping to 6 feet by Sunday.