Surf Forecasts:
How big are the waves at El Capitan today (20 Oct):
- Afternoon surf: Afternoon surf (20 Oct, local time) - 3.5ft (1.1m), 15s period with SSW swell.
- Evening surf: Evening surf (20 Oct, local time) - 3ft (0.9m), 14s period with SSW swell.
The current surf forecast for El Capitan at 8PM is: 0.9m 14s primary swell from a South-southwest direction and 0.6m 11s secondary swell from a West-northwest direction (forecast issued at 04:00pm October 20). The wind direction is predicted to be glassy and the swell rating is 2.
| Time (PDT) & Date | Wave Height | Wave Period |
|---|---|---|
| Morning (20 Oct) | - | - |
| Afternoon (20 Oct) | 3.5ft (1.1m) | 15s |
| Evening (20 Oct) | 3ft (0.9m) | 14s |
Table - waves today at El Capitan. (Swell directed towards the surf break)
Short Range ForecastHeavy rain (total 31mm), heaviest during Wed morning. Warm (max 23°C on Tue afternoon, min 15°C on Thu night). Wind will be generally light. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tue 20 | Wednesday 21 | Thursday 22 | ||||||||||||||||||
2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | 2 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | 11 AM | 2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | 2 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | 11 AM | 2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | |
Swell Height Map |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||
Wave Height (m) Direction Period (s) | SSW 15 | SSW 15 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 15 | SSW 15 | SSW 14 | SSW 18 | SSW 18 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 18 |
Wave Graph  | ||||||||||||||||||||
 kJ | 405 | 485 | 371 | 394 | 394 | 384 | 362 | 268 | 269 | 210 | 356 | 297 | 405 | 405 | 400 | 280 | 360 | 329 | 249 | 246 |
Wind (km/h) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Wind State on-shore cross-onshore cross-shore cross-offshore off-shore glassy | on | on | glassy | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-off | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | on | glassy | glassy | glassy | cross-on | cross-on | cross | cross-off | cross-off |
High Tide | 6:08PM1.65m | 7:46AM1.69m | 7:02PM1.68m | 8:01AM1.80m | 7:50PM1.70m | |||||||||||||||
Low Tide | 12:47PM1.18m | 1:01AM0.55m | 1:26PM1.00m | 1:29AM0.57m | 2:03PM0.81m | |||||||||||||||
 |  |  |  | | |  |  |  | |  | | |  |  | | | | | | |
 | — | — | — | — | — | 7:09 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 7:11 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 | — | 6:19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:17 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:16 | — | — |
mm | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Temp °C | 23 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 16 | 15 |
Feels °C | 22 | 20 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 13 |
Swell 1 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | SSW 15 | SSW 15 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | WNW 12 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 15 | SSW 15 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 | SSW 14 |
| kJ | 405 | 485 | 371 | 394 | 394 | 384 | 362 | 268 | 269 | 207 | 356 | 297 | 405 | 405 | 400 | 261 | 250 | 265 | 247 | 189 |
Swell 2 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | WNW 11 | WNW 11 | WNW 11 | NW 14 | WNW 15 | WNW 14 | WNW 13 | SSW 14 | WNW 11 | WNW 11 | WNW 11 | S 4 | WNW 12 | WNW 12 | WNW 12 | SSW 18 | SSW 18 | W 11 | W 11 | W 11 |
| kJ | 105 | 78 | 79 | 214 | 272 | 332 | 295 | 265 | 166 | 160 | 109 | 18 | 121 | 107 | 107 | 280 | 360 | 157 | 112 | 112 |
Swell 3 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | WNW 15 | NW 15 | WNW 15 | SE 14 | SSE 15 | SSE 14 | SSW 22 | SSW 16 | SSW 17 | SSW 19 | SSW 19 | WNW 11 | S 4 | SSW 4 | SW 5 | WNW 12 | WNW 12 | SSW 18 | SSW 18 | SSW 18 |
| kJ | 42 | 54 | 84 | 8 | 21 | 20 | 45 | 155 | 166 | 210 | 214 | 138 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 109 | 107 | 329 | 249 | 246 |
Wind waves Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | — | SE 8 | E 3 | ESE 3 | SE 4 | SE 4 | — | SW 4 | SW 4 | — | SW 5 | SW 5 | SW 4 | — | W 4 |
| kJ | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 26 | — | 13 | 16 | — | 13 | 10 | 5 | — | 13 |
Nearest Offshore or Glassy | ||||||||||||||||||||
Distance (km) | 39 | 250 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 3 | 31 | 0 | 55 | 47 | 14 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 17 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
Best forecast wave conditions in Santa Barbara | ||||||||||||||||||||
Best forecast wave conditions in United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
Header Global | ||||||||||||||||||||
- Map Icons:
Break
Live Wave Height (m)
Live Wind Speed (km/h)
Surf Rating (10 Max)
Ocean Swells (m)- Wind Speed (km/h)
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.
Nearest