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Swellmap Guide to Detailed Forecasts.

The graphs predict the conditions 7 days out. The wave heights are the significant wave height which is the average height of the biggest one-third of all the waves - meters [m].

marine Wave Forecasts

Swell: or
The height of the swell from the ocean.

Sea: or
The size of the 'chop' or 'roughness' of the sea above the swell.

Total:
The total height incuding the swell and sea.

Period: 
Is the time in seconds between each wave crest.

Set-wave Face
The set-wave face height is a estimate of how big the faces of breaking waves will be in the sets.

Wave Quality Index
Is a scale from 1 - 10 and measures how clean a wave is breaking. It is calculated from the period and the difference between the swell part (dark-blue) and the rougher sea part (light-blue). Where the more swell and less sea the higher the quality of wave.

Beach Forecasts

High score on the wave quality index. These conditions are likely to have nice clean breaking waves.
   Low score on the index. These conditions will be messy. White wash and not the best for surfing.

Wind

The line shows the wind speed, eg. 10 knots.
The arrow points in the direction the wind is blowing. Eg. A southwesterly blows north east.

Tides

The times for high and low tide are shown and also the height of the tide is shown on the left hand axis.

Sea Surface Temperature

Placed at the bottom right of the tides is the current SST for that point.

Swell Direction

Surf beach forecast graphs now include swell direction so you can get a better idea of the conditions at your local break.