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St Mary's Sound wave buoy daily means for Sep 2023

Daily means from the St Mary's Sound wave buoy for Sep 2023, 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

1,430 wave-buoy observations covered all 30 days. Typical wave height was 3.2 ft (10th–90th percentile 1.5–6.7 ft), while mean average of more than one wave period type was 8 seconds (10th–90th percentile 5.5–10.9 seconds). Mean water temperature was 15.9°C (10th–90th percentile 15.2–17.2°C). 15 of 5,718 checked values (0.3%) were excluded by quality control. Across 7 comparable years, mean wave height was above the same-month mean of 3.3 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

3.2ft
Mean: 3.7 ft
P10–P90: 1.5 — 6.7 ft
Recorded extremes

1 — 13.4 ft

Mean Observed Wave Period

8secs
P10–P90: 5.5 — 10.9secs
Recorded extremes

3 — 18.2secs

Observed Wave Direction

SW

Circular concentration: 56%

Mean Water Temperature

15.9°C
P10–P90: 15.2 — 17.2°C
Recorded extremes

14.8 — 19°C

Compared With Previous Septembers

Historical baseline from 4,129 observations across 7 years.

Wave Height
3.7ft
0.4ft above mean
Historical mean 3.3ft
Wave Period
8s
1.1s above mean
Historical mean 6.9s
Water Temperature
15.9°C
0.5°C above mean
Historical mean 15.4°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 Sep 2023Last observation shown
Metric
Mean significant wave height (ft)322443342222122333585448657655
Mean maximum wave height (ft)432754564223222455813857139811988
Mean peak period (s)791168989889788655879910879891098
Mean zero-crossing period (s)554446576554544445566656656665
Mean energy period (s)------------------------------
Mean reported period (s)554446576554544445566655656665
Mean wave power, kilowatts per metre------------------------------
Mean peak wave directionWSWconcentration 75%WNWconcentration 64%WNWconcentration 66%Econcentration 92%ESEconcentration 48%SWconcentration 82%SWconcentration 100%SWconcentration 100%SWconcentration 100%WSWconcentration 78%Wconcentration 76%Wconcentration 51%ESEconcentration 32%Wconcentration 67%WSWconcentration 34%Econcentration 89%ESEconcentration 74%WSWconcentration 81%SWconcentration 96%SSWconcentration 100%SSWconcentration 100%Wconcentration 80%WSWconcentration 76%SSWconcentration 99%SWconcentration 81%WSWconcentration 81%SWconcentration 73%SWconcentration 95%SWconcentration 98%SSWconcentration 91%
Mean directional spread (°)43.054.462.826.339.532.428.824.630.547.951.545.851.046.249.533.333.142.044.930.436.551.344.133.037.842.538.148.739.838.3
Mean reported wave directionWSWconcentration 79%WNWconcentration 65%WNWconcentration 65%ESEconcentration 97%ESEconcentration 57%SWconcentration 82%SWconcentration 100%SWconcentration 100%SWconcentration 100%WSWconcentration 77%Wconcentration 76%Wconcentration 52%Variableconcentration 25%Wconcentration 64%Variableconcentration 29%Econcentration 89%ESEconcentration 74%WSWconcentration 84%SWconcentration 96%SSWconcentration 100%SSWconcentration 100%Wconcentration 88%SWconcentration 72%SSWconcentration 99%SWconcentration 84%WSWconcentration 83%SWconcentration 74%SWconcentration 94%SWconcentration 98%SSWconcentration 90%
Mean water temperature(°C)15.515.315.115.215.716.216.617.718.017.216.616.216.215.615.716.416.315.415.715.515.715.715.815.415.615.815.515.215.215.2

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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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