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St Mary's Sound wave buoy daily means for Oct 2018

Daily means from the St Mary's Sound wave buoy for Oct 2018, 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

641 wave-buoy observations covered 28 of 31 days (90%). Typical wave height was 3.1 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.7–6.5 ft), while the reported wave period averaged 9.7 seconds (10th–90th percentile 6–13 seconds). Mean water temperature was 13.7°C (10th–90th percentile 13.3–13.9°C). 11 of 2,564 checked values (0.4%) were excluded by quality control. Across 2 comparable years, 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 8.4 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

3.1ft
Mean: 4 ft
P10–P90: 1.7 — 6.5 ft
Recorded extremes

1.2 — 19.3 ft

Available for 640 of 641 hourly samples

Mean Observed Wave Period

9.7secs
P10–P90: 6 — 13secs
Recorded extremes

2 — 17secs

Available for 631 of 641 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

Variable

Circular concentration: 16%

Most common: SSW (15%) · circular mean SSW

Mean Water Temperature

13.7°C
P10–P90: 13.3 — 13.9°C
Recorded extremes

13.2 — 14.5°C

Compared With Previous Octobers

Historical baseline from 1,486 observations across 2 years.

Wave Height
4ft
In line with the historical mean
Historical mean 4ft
Wave Period
9.7s
1.3s above mean
Historical mean 8.4s
Water Temperature
13.7°C
0.5°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 2018Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)---22333356QC rejectedQC rejected544332223222235435
Mean maximum wave height (ft)-------------------------------
Mean peak period (s)-------------------------------
Mean zero-crossing period (s)-------------------------------
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean reported period (s)---5678101177121211131213131112117121211988878
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave direction-------------------------------
Mean directional spread (°)-------------------------------
Mean reported wave direction---SSWconcentration 98%SSWconcentration 99%ENEconcentration 66%ESEconcentration 91%Variableconcentration 25%NWconcentration 62%SSEconcentration 80%Sconcentration 98%SSWconcentration 99%SSWconcentration 98%SWconcentration 99%SWconcentration 98%WSWconcentration 67%WNWconcentration 51%Variableconcentration 30%WNWconcentration 50%NNWconcentration 56%WNWconcentration 60%ENEconcentration 66%Nconcentration 34%NWconcentration 40%Variableconcentration 28%NNWconcentration 49%NEconcentration 83%Econcentration 98%ESEconcentration 99%SSEconcentration 44%Sconcentration 81%
Mean water temperature(°C)---13.914.013.913.713.613.813.813.813.814.114.013.913.913.813.813.813.713.713.913.613.713.713.713.513.313.313.313.2

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.

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