Bilbao II coastal buoy
Spain
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
3.6 ft
1.1 m
- Dominant period
- 5.8 s
- Direction
- from N 8°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Short-period wind chop: 3.6 ft at 5.8 s from the N. 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 tracked the buoy within 10%.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 4.9 ft | 6 s | NE |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 4.0 ft | 6.3 s | NE |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 6.4 ft | 8.5 s | NW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 5.6 ft | 10 s | NW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 9.4 ft | 11 s | NW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 11.3 ft | 14 s | NW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 12.8 ft | 16 s | NW |
| Fri, Nov 20 | 10.5 ft | 14 s | NW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (43.500°N, 3.250°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Bilbao station7.7 ft · 6.3 sLive · 4.5 km
- Bilbao-Vizcaya buoy3.8 ft · 6.1 sLive · 28 km
- Donostia buoy4.1 ft · 5.7 sLive · 93 km
- Pasaia II coastal buoy3.7 ft · 5.7 sLive · 100 km
- Saint-Jean-de-Luz3.0 ftLive · 117 km
- Anglet3.6 ftLive · 123 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 62°F (16.8°C)
Reported Nov 13, 8:00 AM GMT+1.
How to read this buoy
Over the readings shown here, most wave energy reached this buoy from the NW and N.
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 4.8 ft at 5.8 s on Nov 12.
- Operator
- Puertos del Estado
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 43.400°N, 3.130°W
- Type
- Moored buoy
- Local time zone
- Europe/Madrid
- Swell split
- No, whole-sea numbers only
Source: E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information; https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00036. Data from Puertos del Estado. 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.
