Surf Forecast Surf Report
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Fanad Head Reef Surf Stats

All swells

(any wind direction)

Good Surf

(light / offshore wind)

This picture describes the combination of swells directed at Fanad Head Reef over a normal March and is based upon 2964 NWW3 model predictions since 2007 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coast so we have chosen the optimum grid node based on what we know about Fanad Head Reef, and at Fanad Head Reef the best grid node is 33 km away (21 miles). The rose diagram shows the distribution of swell directions and swell sizes, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing without direction information. Five colours show increasing wave sizes. The smallest swells, less than 0.5m (1.5 feet), high are coloured blue. These were forecast only 47% of the time. Green and yellow show increasing swell sizes and red shows highest swells greater than >3m (>10ft). In either graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how often that size swell happens. The diagram indicates that the most common swell direction, shown by the largest spokes, was NW, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the SW. Because the wave model grid is away from the coast, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Fanad Head Reef and out to sea. We combine these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To simplify things we don't show these in the rose graph. Because wind determines whether or not waves are good for surfing at Fanad Head Reef, you can load a different image that shows only the swells that were expected to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. During a typical March, swells large enough to cause clean enough to surf waves at Fanad Head Reef run for about 53% of the time.

Also see Fanad Head Reef wind stats

Compare Fanad Head Reef with another surf break

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