Chesil wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
1.5 ft
0.5 m
- Dominant period
- 5.9 s
- Direction
- from S 169°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Short-period wind chop: 1.5 ft at 5.9 s from the 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 ran 46% high against the buoy.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 2.0 ft | 9.3 s | W |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 3.2 ft | 4.7 s | S |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 7.1 ft | 7.9 s | WSW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 5.7 ft | 9.4 s | WSW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 11.0 ft | 9.6 s | SW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 7.3 ft | 11 s | SW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 8.1 ft | 9.7 s | SW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (50.500°N, 2.500°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Weymouth wave buoy1.6 ft · 5.6 sLive · 8.1 km
- West Bay wave buoy4.8 ft · 11 sStale · 19 km
- Boscombe wave buoy0.9 ft · 5.6 sLive · 50 km
- Poole Bay WaveNet Site1.7 ft · 5.4 sLive · 57 km
- Dawlish wave buoy2.5 ft · 5.9 sLive · 63 km
- Milford wave buoy0.6 ft · 11 sStale · 65 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 56°F (13.3°C)
Reported Nov 13, 6:00 AM GMT.
How to read this buoy
Over the readings shown here, most wave energy reached this buoy from the SW.
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 5.9 ft at 12 s on Nov 11.
- Station id
- 6201006
- Operator
- South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 50.602°N, 2.523°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.
