El Capitan surfForecast / CAL – Santa Barbara / USA

information circle48hr Weather and Surf, issued 3 am Thursday 05 Mar 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
14.5° C
(Which is slightly warmer than usual)

How big are the waves at El Capitan today?

The current surf forecast for El Capitan at 9AM is: 1.4m 9s primary swell from a Northwest direction and 0.9m 11s secondary swell from a West-northwest direction, 0.3m 16s secondary swell from a South-southwest direction (forecast issued at 03:00am March 05). The wind direction is predicted to be offshore and the swell rating is 2.

Time (PST) & DateWave HeightWave Period
Morning (05 Mar)4.5ft (1.4m)9s
Afternoon (05 Mar)6ft (1.8m)11s
Evening (05 Mar)6ft (1.9m)10s

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


Updates in  hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
Thursday
05
Friday
06
Saturday
07
1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM1AM4AM7AM10AM1PM4PM7PM10PM
Rating
(10 max)
3
3
2
2
3
3
3
4
3
3
3
3
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
0
1
1
Swell
Height Map
Wave Height (m) & direction (?)
2.1
WNW
1.8
NW
1.6
NW
1.4
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.8
WNW
1.9
WNW
2.5
WNW
2
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.7
WNW
1.5
WNW
1.5
WNW
1.4
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.2
WNW
1.2
WNW
1.1
WNW
1.1
WNW
1
WNW
1
WNW
0.9
WNW
Period(s) (?)89981111101010111111111111111111111111101010
Wave
Graph
(?)Metric surfscale
Energy kJ (?)6014934182736737717851244876668724674581591513431416346340281256206198143
Wind
(km/h)
20
NNW
15
N
15
NNW
15
NNW
15
NNW
20
NNW
15
NNW
15
N
15
N
15
N
10
N
5
WNW
10
SSW
10
W
10
NNW
10
NNE
10
NNE
10
NNE
10
NNE
5
WSW
15
W
20
WNW
15
NNW
10
N
Wind State (?)
onshore
cross-onshore
cross-shore
cross-offshore
offshore
glassy
offoffoffcross-
off
offoffcross-
off
offoffoffoffglasscross-
on
crossoffcross-
off
cross-
off
offcross-
off
glasscrosscross-
off
offoff
High Tide
/ height (m)
10:29PM
1.91
10:37AM
1.80
10:55PM
1.92
11:21AM
1.61
11:22PM
1.90
12:12PM
1.43
Low Tide
/ height (m)
4:36AM
0.62
4:39PM
0.63
5:20AM
0.62
5:02PM
0.80
6:09AM
0.65
5:21PM
0.96
Thursday
05
Friday
06
Saturday
07
Sunrise--6:24-------6:22-------6:20-----
Sunset-----5:59-------6:00-------6:00--
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
Rain (mm)
------------------------
Temp. °C131111182121141211111119212016141414142122231615
Feels °C (?)9771315159867817181614111111111817181211
  • 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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