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Hornsea wave buoy daily means for Dec 2008

Daily means from the Hornsea wave buoy for Dec 2008, 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

1,484 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 2.7 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.3–5.1 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 7.8 seconds (10th–90th percentile 3.7–12.9 seconds). Mean water temperature was 7.4°C (10th–90th percentile 7–8°C). 18 of 5,881 checked values (0.3%) were excluded by quality control.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

2.7ft
Mean: 3.1 ft
P10–P90: 1.3 — 5.1 ft
Recorded extremes

0.8 — 9.5 ft

Available for 743 of 744 hourly samples

Mean Observed Wave Period

7.8secs
P10–P90: 3.7 — 12.9secs
Recorded extremes

1.9 — 20secs

Available for 738 of 744 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

ENE

Circular concentration: 68%

Mean Water Temperature

7.4°C
P10–P90: 7 — 8°C
Recorded extremes

6.6 — 8.6°C

Available for 740 of 744 hourly samples

Chart showing grouped wave observations for Hornsea. 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 Hornsea wave buoy

Hornsea is a Channel Coastal Observatory wave station off the rapidly eroding Holderness coast of East Yorkshire. Its North Sea record provides local wave context for Hornsea's defended frontage and the adjacent soft-cliff coastline, where storms drive substantial shoreline change.

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

Metrics are rows; days run left to right.
Hornsea wave buoy daily means Dec 2008Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)5444142236548432122222322443431
Mean maximum wave height (ft)85562633497612743223343423655742
Mean peak period (s)101177766571096887441481471111129666764
Mean zero-crossing period (s)6644444346545553333546764444543
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionNNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%ESEconcentration 90%ENEconcentration 94%NNEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 72%SEconcentration 40%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 98%Econcentration 83%ESEconcentration 99%Econcentration 100%ENEconcentration 98%SEconcentration 88%Variableconcentration 12%NEconcentration 64%Variableconcentration 18%NNEconcentration 95%Nconcentration 43%NNEconcentration 84%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%ENEconcentration 89%Econcentration 100%Econcentration 99%Econcentration 94%Econcentration 99%Econcentration 100%ENEconcentration 44%
Mean directional spread (°)16.514.317.119.630.616.220.722.118.912.819.220.215.118.421.719.925.436.525.726.217.620.313.314.825.719.218.518.619.517.624.7
Mean water temperature(°C)8.58.38.27.97.77.77.67.57.57.47.47.37.07.27.47.47.47.47.37.47.47.57.57.47.47.37.27.17.06.96.7

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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