Penzance wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Now at the buoy
Significant wave height at the buoy
1.2 ft
0.4 m
- Dominant period
- 7.1 s
- Direction
- from SSE 159°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Short-period swell: 1.2 ft at 7.1 s from the SSE. 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 135% high against the buoy.
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 2.8 ft | 11 s | S |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 5.5 ft | 5.1 s | SSW |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 9.1 ft | 9 s | WSW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 6.9 ft | 9.6 s | WSW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 13.3 ft | 10 s | WSW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 14.6 ft | 15 s | WSW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 15.5 ft | 15 s | WSW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (50.000°N, 5.500°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Porthleven wave buoy1.4 ft · 9.1 sLive · 15 km
- Perranporth wave buoy2.2 ft · 6.3 sLive · 35 km
- Sevenstones Lightship3.3 ftStale · 43 km
- St Marys Sound wave buoy3.7 ft · 7.1 sLive · 63 km
- SW Isles of Scilly WaveNet Site4.6 ft · 7.1 sLive · 81 km
- Looe Bay wave buoy1.7 ft · 10 sLive · 82 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 56°F (13.6°C)
Reported Nov 13, 7:00 AM GMT.
How to read this buoy
Over the readings shown here, most wave energy reached this buoy from the S.
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 4.2 ft at 13 s on Nov 11.
- Station id
- 6201000
- Operator
- South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 50.114°N, 5.503°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.
