Byron Bay - The Wreck Surf Stats

This picture shows the combination of swells directed at Byron Bay - The Wreck over a normal December and is based upon 3448 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast surf and wind right at the coast so we have chosen the optimum grid node based on what we know about Byron Bay - The Wreck. In this particular case the best grid node is 41 km away (25 miles). The rose diagram describes 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 only 23% of the time. Green and yellow represent increasing swell sizes and red shows biggest swells greater than >3m (>10ft). In each graph, 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 largest spokes, was SE, whereas the the prevailing wind blows from the ENE. Because the wave model grid is offshore, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Byron Bay - The Wreck and away from the coast. We group these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To simplify things we don't show these in the rose diagram. Because wind determines whether or not waves are surfable at Byron Bay - The Wreck, you can select a similar diagram that shows only the swells that were predicted to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. During a typical December, swells large enough to cause good for surfing waves at Byron Bay - The Wreck run for about 2.0% of the time.

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