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St Mary's Sound wave buoy daily means for Jan 2019

Daily means from the St Mary's Sound wave buoy for Jan 2019, 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

744 wave-buoy observations covered all 31 days. Typical wave height was 3 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.8–4.8 ft), while the reported wave period averaged 10.2 seconds (10th–90th percentile 5–13 seconds). Mean water temperature was 11.2°C (10th–90th percentile 10.8–11.5°C). 10 of 2,975 checked values (0.3%) were excluded by quality control. Across 2 comparable years, mean wave height was below the same-month mean of 5.5 ft and mean wave period was above the same-month mean of 8.8 seconds.

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

Typical Significant Wave Height

3ft
Mean: 3.2 ft
P10–P90: 1.8 — 4.8 ft
Recorded extremes

1 — 9.2 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

10.2secs
P10–P90: 5 — 13secs
Recorded extremes

4 — 17secs

Available for 734 of 744 hourly samples

Observed Wave Direction

W

Circular concentration: 35%

Mean Water Temperature

11.2°C
P10–P90: 10.8 — 11.5°C
Recorded extremes

10.4 — 11.6°C

Compared With Previous Januarys

Historical baseline from 1,402 observations across 2 years.

Wave Height
3.2ft
2.3ft below mean
Historical mean 5.5ft
Wave Period
10.2s
1.4s above mean
Historical mean 8.8s
Water Temperature
11.2°C
0.4°C above mean
Historical mean 10.8°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 Jan 2019Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)3334333222123234354334433554346
Mean maximum wave height (ft)-------------------------------
Mean peak period (s)-------------------------------
Mean zero-crossing period (s)-------------------------------
Mean energy period (s)-------------------------------
Mean reported period (s)128568131211117131210101061171211111113111110121010128
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre-------------------------------
Mean peak wave direction-------------------------------
Mean directional spread (°)-------------------------------
Mean reported wave directionWSWconcentration 83%Sconcentration 36%SSEconcentration 83%SSEconcentration 96%SSWconcentration 75%NWconcentration 52%WNWconcentration 41%Wconcentration 59%Wconcentration 50%SEconcentration 46%NWconcentration 66%NWconcentration 60%NWconcentration 69%NWconcentration 66%WNWconcentration 49%SWconcentration 83%NWconcentration 56%SSWconcentration 68%NWconcentration 41%NWconcentration 56%NWconcentration 52%WNWconcentration 64%NNWconcentration 57%WNWconcentration 46%Wconcentration 53%WNWconcentration 66%NNWconcentration 56%WNWconcentration 71%WNWconcentration 56%WNWconcentration 55%SSEconcentration 62%
Mean water temperature(°C)11.611.511.511.411.411.411.411.411.411.311.311.311.311.311.311.211.111.111.111.111.011.010.911.011.011.010.810.810.810.610.6

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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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