Wells-next-the-sea Swell Statistics, Summer: All Swell – Any Wind

The graph illustrates the variation of swells directed at Wells-next-the-sea over a normal northern hemisphere summer and is based upon 8717 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coastline so we have chosen the most applicable grid node based on what we know about Wells-next-the-sea. In this particular case the best grid node is 11 km away (7 miles).

The rose diagram illustrates the distribution of swell directions and swell sizes, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing but without direction information. Five colours represent increasing wave sizes. Very small swells of less than 0.5m (1.5 feet) high are shown in blue. These happened 64% of the time. Green and yellow show increasing swell sizes and largest swells greater than >3m (>10ft) are shown in red. In both graphs, the area of any colour is proportional to how frequently that size swell occurs.

The diagram suggests that the dominant swell direction, shown by the largest spokes, was NNE, whereas the the most common wind blows from the WSW. Because the wave model grid is out to sea, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Wells-next-the-sea and offshore. We lump these in 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 Wells-next-the-sea, you Great Yarmouth t5e graph illustraereat Yarmout>Great Yarmouthobed.gif" />