Swell-Forecast.com - European SURF forecasting

Virtual buoys (buoyweather)

Virtual buoys give 5-day predictions of wave height, period and direction, as well as wind speed and direction. The information is for specific points on the ocean, usually fairly close to the coastline. It doesn’t come from real wavebuoys, instead it comes from the WaveWatch III wave prediction model – the same one used by NOAA and FNMOC to give us the wave height and period charts. The only difference is, here, the information is displayed in a different way. Virtual buoys are a good way of getting a quick look at the predicted conditions over the next 5 days, especially if you are only interested in one spot. For more complete information we recommend that you also check the isobaric and wave-prediction charts.

One thing with the virtual buoys is that you can quickly see the predicted arrival of a swell at the coast – this usually shows up as a very sudden jump in wave period accompanied by a more gradual increase in height. With experience you can also make quite an accurate guess at the actual wave height at your local beach by combining the virtual buoy height, period and direction. Normally, long-period swells result in larger breaking waves, but how much larger depends on the local bathymetric characteristics of each particular spot. Also, each spot will have an optimum swell direction with which the waves will come in biggest.