Skip to content
Surfhog home
Menu

St Mary's Sound wave buoy daily means for Oct 2017

Daily means from the St Mary's Sound wave buoy for Oct 2017, 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

743 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 3.3 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.7–6.9 ft), while the reported wave period averaged 8.8 seconds (10th–90th percentile 5–13 seconds). Mean water temperature was 14.1°C (10th–90th percentile 13.8–14.5°C). 7 of 2,972 checked values (0.2%) were excluded by quality control. Across 1 comparable year, mean wave height was the same as the same-month mean of 4 ft and mean wave period was above the same-month mean of 8 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

3.3ft
Mean: 4 ft
P10–P90: 1.7 — 6.9 ft
Recorded extremes

1.1 — 20.5 ft

Available for 742 of 743 hourly samples

Mean Observed Wave Period

8.8secs
P10–P90: 5 — 13secs
Recorded extremes

3 — 17secs

Available for 737 of 743 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

WSW

Circular concentration: 65%

Mean Water Temperature

14.1°C
P10–P90: 13.8 — 14.5°C
Recorded extremes

13.7 — 15°C

Compared With Previous Octobers

Historical baseline from 743 observations across 1 year.

Wave Height
4ft
In line with the historical mean
Historical mean 4ft
Wave Period
8.8s
0.8s above mean
Historical mean 8s
Water Temperature
14.1°C
0.1°C below mean
Historical mean 14.2°C

Chart showing grouped wave observations for St Mary's Sound. 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 St Mary's Sound wave buoy

St Mary's Sound station lies between St Mary's and St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly. The National Network first deployed a Datawell Directional WaveRider here in May 2014, establishing a nearshore record for an archipelago exposed to Atlantic swell and important to local navigation and coastal management.

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.
St Mary's Sound wave buoy daily means Oct 2017Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)542232322243444QC rejected7467QC rejected5564322222
Mean maximum wave height (ft)-------------------------------
Mean peak period (s)-------------------------------
Mean zero-crossing period (s)-------------------------------
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean reported period (s)71012118999856861281011788111088101098996
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave direction-------------------------------
Mean directional spread (°)-------------------------------
Mean reported wave directionSWconcentration 99%WNWconcentration 82%NNWconcentration 82%WSWconcentration 72%WNWconcentration 66%NWconcentration 45%Wconcentration 73%WNWconcentration 61%WSWconcentration 63%WSWconcentration 89%SWconcentration 93%Wconcentration 54%SWconcentration 79%NWconcentration 85%WSWconcentration 47%SSWconcentration 95%SSWconcentration 92%SSEconcentration 60%SWconcentration 93%SSWconcentration 95%SWconcentration 95%WSWconcentration 88%SWconcentration 98%SWconcentration 94%Wconcentration 72%Wconcentration 82%WSWconcentration 92%SWconcentration 99%SWconcentration 92%WSWconcentration 89%SSWconcentration 84%
Mean water temperature(°C)14.414.614.714.514.414.414.314.314.214.214.214.214.214.214.314.214.414.314.214.113.913.813.813.813.813.813.813.813.813.813.8

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