Skip to content
Surfhog home
Menu

Hornsea wave buoy daily means for Jan 2012

Daily means from the Hornsea wave buoy for Jan 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

1,487 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 2.4 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.3–5.4 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 7.9 seconds (10th–90th percentile 3.3–12.2 seconds). Mean water temperature was 6.9°C (10th–90th percentile 6.7–7.4°C). 19 of 5,834 checked values (0.3%) were excluded by quality control. Across 2 comparable years, mean wave height was below the same-month mean of 3.9 ft and mean wave period was below the same-month mean of 8.4 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

2.4ft
Mean: 2.9 ft
P10–P90: 1.3 — 5.4 ft
Recorded extremes

0.9 — 9.8 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

7.9secs
P10–P90: 3.3 — 12.2secs
Recorded extremes

1.9 — 20secs

Available for 740 of 744 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

NE

Circular concentration: 56%

Mean Water Temperature

6.9°C
P10–P90: 6.7 — 7.4°C
Recorded extremes

6.4 — 7.7°C

Available for 740 of 744 hourly samples

Compared With Previous Januarys

Historical baseline from 2,968 observations across 2 years.

Wave Height
2.9ft
1ft below mean
Historical mean 3.937ft
Wave Period
7.9s
0.5s below mean
Historical mean 8.4s
Water Temperature
6.9°C
1.6°C above mean
Historical mean 5.3°C

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 Jan 2012Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)2244562321136422122333322322346
Mean maximum wave height (ft)336689453224107332334454335335610
Mean peak period (s)53497111010912147111210444168410865688778
Mean zero-crossing period (s)3334574643347753333434443444445
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionSSEconcentration 55%SSWconcentration 89%SWconcentration 57%Nconcentration 62%Nconcentration 82%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 85%NNEconcentration 89%NNWconcentration 55%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 87%ESEconcentration 100%SEconcentration 94%SEconcentration 75%NEconcentration 96%Nconcentration 79%NWconcentration 82%NNEconcentration 90%NNEconcentration 100%ENEconcentration 56%ESEconcentration 98%ESEconcentration 97%ENEconcentration 97%NEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 99%ENEconcentration 100%
Mean directional spread (°)19.620.817.316.516.213.117.114.721.230.230.719.313.814.516.119.017.822.029.219.020.521.120.521.020.818.922.818.816.017.218.4
Mean water temperature(°C)7.67.57.47.47.16.96.86.86.96.87.07.07.06.96.96.96.86.86.86.97.17.17.06.86.86.96.86.86.86.76.5

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.

› Wave Buoy List