Bilbao station
Spain
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
5.8 ft
1.8 m
- Dominant period
- 5.3 s
- Direction
- no direction
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Short-period wind chop: 5.8 ft at 5.3 s. 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 | 4.5 ft | 6 s | NNE |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 3.9 ft | 6.2 s | NNE |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 6.8 ft | 8.3 s | WNW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 6.0 ft | 10 s | NW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 10.2 ft | 11 s | NW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 12.4 ft | 14 s | WNW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 14.1 ft | 16 s | WNW |
| Fri, Nov 20 | 11.8 ft | 14 s | WNW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (43.500°N, 3.000°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 II coastal buoy3.7 ft · 5.7 sLive · 4.5 km
- Bilbao-Vizcaya buoy3.8 ft · 6.1 sLive · 30 km
- Donostia buoy4.1 ft · 5.5 sLive · 90 km
- Pasaia II coastal buoy4.0 ft · 5.7 sLive · 96 km
- Saint-Jean-de-Luz3.0 ftLive · 114 km
- Anglet3.6 ftLive · 120 km
Other readings
- Wind
- 6 kt from the SE, gusts 8 kt
- Air temperature
- 57°F (14.0°C)
- Pressure
- 1004.9 hPa
Reported Nov 13, 7:10 AM GMT+1.
How to read this buoy
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 6.4 ft at 6.2 s on Nov 12.
- Operator
- Basque Metereological Agency
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 43.379°N, 3.083°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 Basque Metereological Agency. 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.
