Lowestoft wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
3.5 ft
1.1 m
- Dominant period
- 6.7 s
- Direction
- from NNE 30°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Short-period wind chop: 3.5 ft at 6.7 s from the NNE. 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 65% high against the buoy.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 7.4 ft | 8.7 s | N |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 4.2 ft | 8.9 s | N |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 6.6 ft | 6.1 s | S |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 6.2 ft | 5.8 s | WNW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 6.8 ft | 6 s | ENE |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 4.0 ft | 8.9 s | NNE |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 4.3 ft | 4.4 s | ENE |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (52.500°N, 2.000°E). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Southwold Approach WaveNet Site3.8 ft · 7.4 sLive · 18 km
- Happisburgh wave buoy6.9 ft · 7.7 sLive · 43 km
- West Gabbard 2 WaveNet SiteOffline · 61 km
- Felixstowe wave buoy2.0 ft · 6.9 sLive · 66 km
- Blakeney Overfalls wave buoy7.8 ft · 9.5 sLive · 81 km
- North Sea10.5 ftLive · 96 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 52°F (10.9°C)
Reported Nov 13, 4:30 AM GMT.
How to read this buoy
Over the readings shown here, most wave energy reached this buoy from the NE, E and N.
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 4.9 ft at 6.5 s on Nov 12.
- Station id
- 6201059
- Operator
- Environment Agency Geomatics; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 52.476°N, 1.817°E
- 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 Environment Agency Geomatics; 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.
