Skip to content
Surfhog home
Menu

Hornsea wave buoy daily means for Oct 2023

Daily means from the Hornsea wave buoy for Oct 2023, 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

1,436 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 3.5 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.4–6.8 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 9.2 seconds (10th–90th percentile 4.5–12.5 seconds). Mean water temperature was 13.3°C (10th–90th percentile 12.4–14.3°C). 4 of 5,728 checked values (0.1%) were excluded by quality control. Across 13 comparable years, mean wave height was above the same-month mean of 3 ft and mean wave period was above the same-month mean of 7.3 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

3.5ft
Mean: 3.9 ft
P10–P90: 1.4 — 6.8 ft
Recorded extremes

0.5 — 17.1 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

9.2secs
P10–P90: 4.5 — 12.5secs
Recorded extremes

2 — 15.4secs

Available for 722 of 723 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

NE

Circular concentration: 76%

Mean Water Temperature

13.3°C
P10–P90: 12.4 — 14.3°C
Recorded extremes

12.2 — 14.6°C

Available for 722 of 723 hourly samples

Compared With Previous Octobers

Historical baseline from 18,379 observations across 13 years.

Wave Height
3.9ft
0.9ft above mean
Historical mean 3.018ft
Wave Period
9.2s
1.9s above mean
Historical mean 7.3s
Water Temperature
13.3°C
0.4°C above mean
Historical mean 12.9°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 Oct 2023Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)11222234222224643881483244444454
Mean maximum wave height (ft)212223564223361075121322135366776787
Mean peak period (s)6833911121111951312111212981012129869988101010
Mean zero-crossing period (s)4433335575354577556786546565665
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionEconcentration 65%NNEconcentration 100%WSWconcentration 99%SWconcentration 93%NNEconcentration 61%NNEconcentration 78%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 70%Variableconcentration 8%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 72%Econcentration 99%ENEconcentration 97%NEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 100%NEconcentration 100%Econcentration 98%NEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 88%NEconcentration 98%NEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%
Mean directional spread (°)25.427.821.022.425.220.613.411.010.817.626.218.620.118.315.014.817.615.914.514.113.814.616.120.016.819.423.420.517.015.116.3
Mean water temperature(°C)14.414.414.314.214.114.114.214.214.314.314.214.013.913.513.213.012.912.812.912.912.812.712.712.612.512.412.512.412.412.412.3

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