Skip to content
Surfhog home
Menu

Lowestoft wave buoy daily means for Jan 2025

Daily means from the Lowestoft wave buoy for Jan 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

1,483 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 2 ft (10th–90th percentile 0.8–6 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 6 seconds (10th–90th percentile 3.5–8.3 seconds). Mean water temperature was 6.2°C (10th–90th percentile 5.8–7°C). 10 of 5,901 checked values (0.2%) were excluded by quality control. Across 8 comparable years, mean wave height was below the same-month mean of 3 ft and mean wave period was below the same-month mean of 6.2 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

2ft
Mean: 2.6 ft
P10–P90: 0.8 — 6 ft
Recorded extremes

0.5 — 12.8 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

6secs
P10–P90: 3.5 — 8.3secs
Recorded extremes

1.7 — 15.4secs

Available for 743 of 744 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

ESE

Circular concentration: 54%

Mean Water Temperature

6.2°C
P10–P90: 5.8 — 7°C
Recorded extremes

5.5 — 7.7°C

Compared With Previous Januarys

Historical baseline from 11,833 observations across 8 years.

Wave Height
2.6ft
0.4ft below mean
Historical mean 2.953ft
Wave Period
6s
0.2s below mean
Historical mean 6.2s
Water Temperature
6.2°C
0.1°C above mean
Historical mean 6.1°C

Chart showing grouped wave observations for Lowestoft. 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 Lowestoft wave buoy

Lowestoft is a Channel Coastal Observatory wave station off the Suffolk coast at Britain's most easterly town. Its North Sea observations provide local context for the harbour approaches, developed seafront and low-lying coastline around Lowestoft and northern Suffolk.

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.
Lowestoft wave buoy daily means Jan 2025Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)6332QC rejectedQC rejected3222222211111111352666222
Mean maximum wave height (ft)94549944433333112121224829109333
Mean peak period (s)779867101067665455434744565677566
Mean zero-crossing period (s)5455554444453443333333344555444
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionSSEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 94%NEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 79%SEconcentration 94%SSEconcentration 93%NEconcentration 76%NEconcentration 82%NEconcentration 86%NEconcentration 98%NEconcentration 99%NEconcentration 98%SSEconcentration 59%SSEconcentration 97%Econcentration 90%SEconcentration 76%SSEconcentration 98%SEconcentration 82%SSEconcentration 97%SEconcentration 41%SSEconcentration 98%ESEconcentration 65%Variableconcentration 26%SSEconcentration 99%SEconcentration 54%SEconcentration 76%SSEconcentration 99%SSEconcentration 99%SEconcentration 76%NEconcentration 100%SEconcentration 56%
Mean directional spread (°)24.944.239.342.626.831.644.147.337.042.339.237.131.734.850.044.635.445.636.943.833.140.728.321.744.226.020.222.152.939.339.4
Mean water temperature(°C)7.57.47.16.96.86.86.76.56.36.16.05.95.95.95.95.95.95.95.95.85.85.85.85.85.96.06.05.95.95.95.9

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