Friday Beach Report: Few Signs Yet of Irene

A massive hurricane is barreling up the coast on a collision course with Ocean City and officials have ordered the island to be evacuated by this evening, but on the beach Friday morning at Third Street, you wouldn't know it.

A good number of surfers are trying to make something of some limp hip-high sets of waves, but an equal number are up on the Boardwalk watching and waiting.

There doesn't appear to be any significant surf swell from the approaching storm at dawn on Friday morning. That, of course, will change rapidly through the day and weekend.

There's no wind in the morning, and the sky is mostly clear with a little bit of patchy fog. The forecast calls for no rain until after 5 p.m., so the weather should allow residents and visitors to pack up and get out of town.

The evacuation order said the beaches are closed effective immediately, but there doesn't appear to be any effort yet to chase the surfers away. That will likely change when the Ocean City Beach Patrol starts work in the morning and as the surf begins to build.

The ocean water temperature is 73 degrees in the shallow surf at Third Street. Low tide is 11:29 a.m. today on the ocean side, and high tide is 5:58 p.m.

Surf: Surf forecasters were calling for a short window of surfable overhead waves before things turned ugly -- but that hasn't happened yet. The first pulses from Irene are likely to show later this morning, but the best waves could come as the evacuation order starts to take effect. 

Traffic: No issues early on Friday -- outside of some lines at the gas stations.

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O.C. surf cams and reports:

Heritage Surf: Surf cam, 
7th Street Surf Shop: Surf cam, 
Surfers Supplies: Forecast, 
The Surfers View: O.C. wave cam
48th Street: Beach cam
Ocean water temperature: At Atlantic City's Steel Pier