El Capitan surfForecast / CAL – Santa Barbara / USA

information circle48hr Weather and Surf, issued 9 am Thursday 19 Feb 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
15.6° 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 4PM is: 3.0m 10s primary swell from a West-northwest direction and 0.4m 15s secondary swell from a Southwest direction, 0.2m 11s secondary swell from a South direction (forecast issued at 09:00am February 19). The wind direction is predicted to be cross-offshore.

Time (PST) & DateWave HeightWave Period
Morning (19 Feb)7ft (2.1m)7s
Afternoon (19 Feb)10ft (3.0m)9s
Evening (19 Feb)10ft (3.0m)11s

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

Updates in  hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
Thursday
19
Friday
20
Saturday
21
Sun
22
7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM
Rating
(10 max)
1
3
1
2
2
3
4
3
4
4
3
3
2
2
2
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Swell
Height Map
Wave Height (m) & direction (?)
1.9
W
2.1
W
2.5
W
3
WNW
3
WNW
2.5
WNW
2.4
WNW
2.4
WNW
2.5
WNW
2.4
WNW
1.6
WNW
1.6
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.2
WNW
1.1
WNW
0.9
WNW
0.9
WNW
0.7
WNW
0.6
WNW
0.6
WNW
0.5
WNW
0.5
W
0.5
W
0.4
W
Period(s) (?)1278101111111111111111111110101010999996
Wave
Graph
(?)Metric surfscale
Energy kJ (?)10914659581635203115471381136517831425665631373322237176140100696546414015
Wind
(km/h)
15
SSW
15
WNW
30
WNW
30
NW
30
NW
20
NW
15
NNW
15
NNW
15
NNW
15
NNW
15
NW
10
WNW
10
NNW
10
N
5
NE
5
ENE
10
E
15
ESE
15
SE
10
SSW
0
SSW
0
SW
5
NW
5
NNE
Wind State (?)
onshore
cross-onshore
cross-shore
cross-offshore
offshore
glassy
oncross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
offcross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
offoffcross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
on
cross-
on
onglassglasscross-
off
cross-
off
High Tide
/ height (m)
10:21AM
1.93
11:09PM
1.86
11:06AM
1.75
11:41PM
1.92
12:01PM
1.54
12:18AM
1.96
Low Tide
/ height (m)
4:22AM
0.77
4:47PM
0.45
5:12AM
0.72
5:14PM
0.61
6:09AM
0.68
5:41PM
0.78
Thursday
19
Friday
20
Saturday
21
Sun
22
Sunrise6:41-------6:39-------6:39-------
Sunset---5:45-------5:46-------5:47----
light rain
rain showers
rain showers
part cloud
clear
part cloud
part cloud
cloud
cloud
cloud
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
cloud
cloud
cloud
cloud
clear
Rain (mm)
361---------------------
Temp. °C1012131199787121414988881315141111109
Feels °C (?)79642423379106555491112101087
  • 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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