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Happisburgh wave buoy daily means for Aug 2012

Daily means from the Happisburgh wave buoy for Aug 2012, including available wave height, period, direction, wind and sea temperature data.

Last observation shown

Data available:  to 

Monthly means for

Latest

Period Summary

Programmatically generated summary. Hog Says

1,488 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 1.1 ft (10th–90th percentile 0.6–2.6 ft), while mean peak wave period was 5.3 seconds (10th–90th percentile 3.7–7.4 seconds). Mean water temperature was 18.5°C (10th–90th percentile 17.7–19.3°C). 3 of 5,952 checked values (0.1%) were excluded by quality control.

Generated only from the observations and comparisons shown on this page.

Typical Significant Wave Height

1.1ft
Mean: 1.5 ft
P10–P90: 0.6 — 2.6 ft
Recorded extremes

0.4 — 8.9 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

5.3secs
P10–P90: 3.7 — 7.4secs
Recorded extremes

1.7 — 10.5secs

Observed Wave Direction

NE

Circular concentration: 81%

Mean Water Temperature

18.5°C
P10–P90: 17.7 — 19.3°C
Recorded extremes

17.3 — 19.8°C

Chart showing grouped wave observations for Happisburgh. Use the table on this page for a text version of the same measurements. To open hourly observations, use a linked day name in the table.

About Happisburgh wave buoy

Happisburgh is a Channel Coastal Observatory wave station off the northeast Norfolk coast. It supplies a nearshore North Sea record for one of England's most rapidly changing soft-cliff frontages, where communities, beaches and coastal defences are exposed to frequent erosion.

Its current data source reports wave height, wave period, wave direction, directional spread and sea temperature.

Metrics are rows; days run left to right.
Happisburgh wave buoy daily means Aug 2012Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)1111111221232222111111111QC rejected21136
Mean peak period (s)5455654776556656544464445685557
Mean zero-crossing period (s)3344334554344444333343334454445
Mean peak wave directionENEconcentration 90%ENEconcentration 84%Econcentration 97%Econcentration 98%NEconcentration 83%NEconcentration 87%NNEconcentration 87%NNEconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 86%NNEconcentration 93%ENEconcentration 99%ENEconcentration 100%ENEconcentration 95%ENEconcentration 97%ENEconcentration 93%Econcentration 92%Econcentration 97%NEconcentration 95%NNEconcentration 86%NNEconcentration 94%Nconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 92%ENEconcentration 92%Econcentration 96%Nconcentration 88%NNEconcentration 93%NEconcentration 82%Econcentration 98%NEconcentration 69%NNEconcentration 99%
Mean directional spread (°)32.636.230.431.333.836.937.628.323.924.925.024.320.422.523.726.826.632.043.436.539.534.538.035.934.623.726.840.728.629.223.1
Mean water temperature(°C)17.717.717.717.717.717.817.817.918.118.218.318.418.618.718.818.818.919.219.419.419.419.219.019.018.918.818.718.718.618.217.5

Swipe sideways to see more days.

Wave metric colour key

Colours move through the scale as each number increases. They do not by themselves mean that conditions are good, safe or suitable for you.

Wave & swell height0–40+ ft
Wave & swell period0–22+ s
Wind speed0–75 mph

The displayed numbers remain the source of truth; colour is an additional visual cue.

What does buoy wave power mean?

kW/m means kilowatts of wave power per metre of wave crest. It describes the rate at which the observed sea state carries energy past the buoy.

Unlike the shore-directed forecast value, buoy wave power is the total power at the observation point. It is not projected towards a particular beach and does not predict breaking wave height.

In deep water, wave power can be calculated with:

P is approximately 0.49 times significant wave height squared times wave energy period.

P is power in kW/m, Hs is significant wave height in metres, and Te is wave energy period in seconds.

  • Provider-reported power is used when available.
  • Otherwise, a value is calculated only when both significant height and a genuine energy period are available. The ≈ symbol marks calculated values.
  • A dash is shown instead of substituting peak, Tm02, zero-crossing or other period measurements.
  • Daily and monthly figures use the mean of hourly-normalized observation power values; they are not calculated from mean height and period.

Wave direction, spectrum, water depth and local bathymetry still matter. Wave power is best read alongside height, period and direction rather than as a standalone surf-quality score.

The observation data displayed on this page is from the Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme.

Learn how SurfHog combines, checks and summarizes observations in the data and methodology notes.

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