West Bay wave buoy
United Kingdom
Last wave reading:
Last reading
This reading is more than 3 hours old. The buoy may have stopped sending waves for now.
Significant wave height at the buoy
4.8 ft
1.4 m
- Dominant period
- 11 s
- Direction
- from SW 218°
This station does not send a swell and wind-wave split, so the numbers are for the whole sea.
Mid-period swell: 4.8 ft at 11 s from the SW.
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
| Day | Height | Peak period | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | 3.3 ft | 7.7 s | N |
| Sat, Nov 14 | 3.3 ft | 4.5 s | S |
| Sun, Nov 15 | 7.1 ft | 8 s | WSW |
| Mon, Nov 16 | 5.6 ft | 9.4 s | WSW |
| Tue, Nov 17 | 11.0 ft | 9.5 s | SW |
| Wed, Nov 18 | 7.3 ft | 11 s | SW |
| Thu, Nov 19 | 7.9 ft | 9.1 s | SW |
ECMWF WAM wave model via Open-Meteo, nearest model cell (50.500°N, 2.750°W). Both lines are significant wave height at sea, the same measure the buoy reports. Model output, not a Quiver beach forecast.
Nearby buoys
- Chesil wave buoy1.7 ft · 5.9 sLive · 19 km
- Weymouth wave buoy1.7 ft · 5.9 sLive · 25 km
- Dawlish wave buoy2.5 ft · 5.9 sLive · 49 km
- Tor Bay wave buoy3.3 ft · 6.3 sLive · 62 km
- Boscombe wave buoy1.0 ft · 5.9 sLive · 64 km
- Poole Bay WaveNet Site1.8 ft · 5.9 sLive · 73 km
Other readings
- Water temperature
- 55°F (13.0°C)
Reported Nov 11, 8:00 AM GMT.
How to read this buoy
Biggest hourly reading in that record: 5.1 ft at 13 s on Nov 11.
- Station id
- 6201005
- Operator
- South West Coastal Monitoring; National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP)
- Program
- Copernicus Marine In Situ
- Position
- 50.693°N, 2.750°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.
