Walton-On-The-Naze Surf Stats

This picture describes the combination of swells directed at Walton-On-The-Naze over a normal February, based on 3115 NWW3 model predictions since 2007 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coastline so we have chosen the best grid node based on what we know about Walton-On-The-Naze. In this particular case the best grid node is 21 km away (13 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 illustrate increasing wave sizes. Blue shows the smallest swells, less that 0.5m (1.5 feet) high. These occurred 83% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and red shows highest swells greater than >3m (>10ft). In either graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how frequently that size swell occurs. The diagram suggests that the most common swell direction, shown by the longest spokes, was N, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the SW. Because the wave model grid is out to sea, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Walton-On-The-Naze and offshore. 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 surfable at Walton-On-The-Naze, you can view an alternative image that shows only the swells that were predicted to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. During a typical February, swells large enough to cause good for surfing waves at Walton-On-The-Naze run for about 0% of the time.

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