Skip to content
Surfhog home
Menu

Hornsea wave buoy daily means for May 2025

Daily means from the Hornsea wave buoy for May 2025, 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 2.5 ft (10th–90th percentile 0.9–5.5 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 7 seconds (10th–90th percentile 3.1–10.4 seconds). Mean water temperature was 11.1°C (10th–90th percentile 10.2–11.9°C). 3 of 5,918 checked values (0.1%) were excluded by quality control. Across 15 comparable years, mean wave height was above the same-month mean of 2.4 ft and mean wave period was above the same-month mean of 6.9 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

2.5ft
Mean: 2.8 ft
P10–P90: 0.9 — 5.5 ft
Recorded extremes

0.4 — 7.3 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

7secs
P10–P90: 3.1 — 10.4secs
Recorded extremes

1.8 — 15.4secs

Observed Wave Direction

NE

Circular concentration: 66%

Mean Water Temperature

11.1°C
P10–P90: 10.2 — 11.9°C
Recorded extremes

9.7 — 12.8°C

Compared With Previous Mays

Historical baseline from 22,096 observations across 15 years.

Wave Height
2.8ft
0.4ft above mean
Historical mean 2.428ft
Wave Period
7s
0.1s above mean
Historical mean 6.9s
Water Temperature
11.1°C
1.2°C above mean
Historical mean 9.9°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 May 2025Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)1126QC rejected33211223355443346532221111
Mean maximum wave height (ft)12499544223344887754710853221221
Mean peak period (s)1078910810753456510989878111094356445
Mean zero-crossing period (s)3345555433344455556456653334334
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionNNEconcentration 83%NNEconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 90%Econcentration 97%ESEconcentration 99%Econcentration 100%Econcentration 99%NEconcentration 92%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 99%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%NNEconcentration 100%WNWconcentration 53%SSWconcentration 90%ESEconcentration 77%Econcentration 88%SSWconcentration 50%SEconcentration 51%Econcentration 48%
Mean directional spread (°)24.321.921.012.410.414.611.817.832.830.822.720.317.323.912.215.013.411.711.316.012.712.111.214.122.824.029.530.321.826.831.6
Mean water temperature(°C)10.110.210.210.110.010.210.310.310.610.710.811.111.311.311.211.111.011.011.411.411.411.411.511.611.811.811.811.912.012.112.3

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