Looe Bay wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
1.7 ft
0.5 m
- Dominant period
- 10 s
- Direction
- from SSW 211°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Mid-period swell: 1.7 ft at 10 s from the SSW. 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 39% high against the buoy.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 2.3 ft | 8.9 s | SSE |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 4.0 ft | 5.1 s | S |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 6.7 ft | 8.4 s | SW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 6.6 ft | 5.2 s | SE |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 9.1 ft | 11 s | SW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 7.4 ft | 8.5 s | SW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 7.7 ft | 10 s | SW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (50.250°N, 4.500°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Perranporth wave buoy2.0 ft · 6.7 sLive · 54 km
- Start Bay wave buoy3.2 ft · 6.3 sLive · 57 km
- Tor Bay wave buoy3.0 ft · 6.3 sLive · 64 km
- Porthleven wave buoy1.4 ft · 10 sLive · 71 km
- Dawlish wave buoy2.5 ft · 5.9 sLive · 75 km
- Bideford Bay wave buoy0.8 ft · 5.6 sLive · 81 km
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: 5.7 ft at 11 s on Nov 11.
- Station id
- 6201025
- Operator
- South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 50.339°N, 4.411°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.
