Bideford Bay wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
0.8 ft
0.2 m
- Dominant period
- 5.6 s
- Direction
- from WNW 302°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Close to flat at the buoy: 0.8 ft of total wave height. Holding steady over the last 6 hours.
Significant wave height is the average of the biggest third of waves at the buoy. It is not surf height at a beach.
Trend at the buoy
Height at the buoy
- Total (significant height)
Period
- Dominant period
Hourly means of the buoy's readings. Arrows point the way the waves travel.
Model vs the buoy
- Buoy, hourly
- Model, past days
- Model forecast
Over the last 2 days, the model ran 70% high against the buoy.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 1.2 ft | 3.7 s | S |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 2.4 ft | 6 s | SSW |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 6.7 ft | 6.8 s | WNW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 5.9 ft | 8.5 s | WNW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 9.1 ft | 8.3 s | WSW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 8.5 ft | 15 s | WSW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 10.8 ft | 15 s | WSW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (51.250°N, 4.250°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Scarweather WaveNet Site1.0 ft · 10 sLive · 48 km
- Minehead wave buoy0.8 ft · 3.1 sLive · 59 km
- South Pembrokeshire WaveNet Site2.0 ft · 9.5 sLive · 80 km
- Dawlish wave buoy2.5 ft · 5.9 sLive · 80 km
- Looe Bay wave buoy1.7 ft · 10 sLive · 81 km
- Tor Bay wave buoy3.3 ft · 6.3 sLive · 88 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 57°F (13.8°C)
Reported Nov 13, 6:30 AM GMT.
How to read this buoy
Over the readings shown here, most wave energy reached this buoy from the W.
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 4.3 ft at 13 s on Nov 11.
- Station id
- 6201024
- Operator
- South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 51.058°N, 4.277°W
- Type
- Moored buoy
- Local time zone
- Europe/London
- Swell split
- No, whole-sea numbers only
Source: E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information; https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00036. Data from South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP). Licence: Copernicus Marine Service licence. Changes: Quiver converts the units (feet, knots, °F) and shows a subset of the published fields.
Not for navigation. Readings can be late, missing or wrong; check official marine forecasts before going to sea.
Buoy terms
- Significant height
- The average of the biggest third of waves the buoy measured. Sets in the surf zone can be bigger or smaller.
- Dominant period
- Seconds between the waves carrying the most energy. Longer period means more power and more bend around points.
- Swell vs wind waves
- Swell was made by distant wind; wind waves were made nearby. The buoy splits its spectrum at a cutoff period to report each.
- Direction
- Where waves come from, in degrees true. 270° is from the west.
