Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks) Surf Stats

The graph describes the variation of swells directed at Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks) through an average December. It is based on 3448 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the shore so we have chosen the most applicable grid node based on what we know about Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks). In this particular case the best grid node is 39 km away (24 miles). The rose diagram illustrates the distribution of swell sizes and directions, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing but lacks direction information. Five colours show increasing wave sizes. The smallest swells, less than 0.5m (1.5 feet), high are coloured blue. These happened only 1.3% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and highest swells greater than >3m (>10ft) are shown in red. In both graphs, the area of any colour is proportional to how commonly that size swell happens. The diagram implies that the dominant swell direction, shown by the biggest spokes, was WNW, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the NNW. Because the wave model grid is offshore, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks) and away from the coast. We combine these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To avoid confusion we don't show these in the rose graph. Because wind determines whether or not waves are good for surfing at Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks), you can view an alternative image that shows only the swells that were expected to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. In a typical December, swells large enough to cause clean enough to surf waves at Punta San Jacinto (Shipwrecks) run for about 99% of the time.

read more