El Capitan surfForecast / CAL – Santa Barbara / USA

information circle48hr Weather and Surf, issued 9 am Saturday 10 Jan 2026 PST
Forecast update in hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
El Capitan surf forecast is for near shore open water. Breaking waves will often be smaller at less exposed spots.
Today's El Capitan sea temperature is
15.8° C
(Which is 1.9°C warmer than normal for this time of year)


How big are the waves at El Capitan today?

The current surf forecast for El Capitan at 1PM is: 0.9m 14s primary swell from a West-northwest direction and 0.3m 12s secondary swell from a South-southwest direction (forecast issued at 09:00am January 10). The wind direction is predicted to be glassy and the swell rating is 2.

Time (PST) & DateWave HeightWave Period
Morning (10 Jan)3.5ft (1.0m)14s
Afternoon (10 Jan)2.5ft (0.8m)14s
Evening (10 Jan)2.5ft (0.7m)13s

Table - waves today at El Capitan. (Swell directed towards the surf break)

Updates in  hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
Saturday
10
Sunday
11
Monday
12
Tue
13
7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM
Rating
(10 max)
2
2
2
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
Swell
Height Map
Wave Height (m) & direction (?)
1.1
NW
1
WNW
0.9
WNW
0.8
WNW
0.8
WNW
0.7
WNW
0.6
WNW
0.6
WNW
0.6
WNW
0.7
WNW
0.7
WNW
0.4
NW
0.5
WNW
0.9
WNW
1.2
WNW
1.4
WNW
1.9
WNW
2
WNW
2
WNW
1.9
WNW
1.9
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.7
WNW
Period(s) (?)141414131313131314141321202018181717161616161615
Wave
Graph
(?)Metric surfscale
Energy kJ (?)476425342229222151114113134166156135225596959128820962199202117721750149313241209
Wind
(km/h)
10
N
5
E
5
WSW
5
WSW
5
NNE
5
NNE
10
N
10
N
10
NNE
5
NE
5
WSW
5
WSW
5
N
5
NNE
10
NNE
10
NNE
5
NNE
0
NE
5
WSW
5
W
5
NNE
5
NNE
5
NNE
10
N
Wind State (?)
onshore
cross-onshore
cross-shore
cross-offshore
offshore
glassy
offglassglasscrosscross-
off
cross-
off
offoffoffglassglassglassglassoffoffoffcross-
off
glassglassglassglassoffoffoff
High Tide
/ height (m)
3:44PM
1.23
4:03AM
1.84
5:50PM
1.20
4:47AM
1.88
7:22PM
1.26
Low Tide
/ height (m)
10:27AM
0.91
8:47PM
0.95
11:42AM
0.76
9:36PM
1.09
12:37PM
0.61
10:37PM
1.18
Saturday
10
Sunday
11
Monday
12
Tue
13
Sunrise-7:07-------7:07-------7:05------
Sunset---5:07-------5:07-------5:08----
clear
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
Rain (mm)
------------------------
Temp. °C111518161313131212162018161514141418211916161515
Feels °C (?)71215141110988141817141211101016181714131212
  • Map Icons:
  • Break
  • Live Wave Height (m)
  • Live Wind Speed (km/h)
  • Surf Rating (10 Max)
  • Ocean Swells (m)
  • Wind Speed (km/h)
Map placeholder

Latest Updates

FREE! Surf-Forecast.com widget for your website

The surf report / weather widget below is available to embed on third party websites free of charge and provides a summary of our El Capitan surf forecast. Simply grab the html code snippet that we provide and paste it into your own site. You can choose your preferred language and metric/imperial units for the surf forecast feed to suit users of your site. Click here to get the code.


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