Barra do Ribeira Surf Stats

This picture describes the variation of swells directed at Barra do Ribeira through a typical December and is based upon 3448 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the shore so we have chosen the most applicable grid node based on what we know about Barra do Ribeira. In the case of Barra do Ribeira, the best grid node is 37 km away (23 miles). The rose diagram illustrates the distribution of swell sizes and directions, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing without direction information. Five colours represent increasing wave sizes. Very small swells of less than 0.5m (1.5 feet) high are shown in blue. These happened only 0.7% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and red shows the highest swells, greater than >3m (>10ft). In each graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how often that size swell occurs. The diagram indicates that the most common swell direction, shown by the largest spokes, was SE, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the ESE. Because the wave model grid is out to sea, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Barra do Ribeira and offshore. We group these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To simplify things we don't show these in the rose diagram. Because wind determines whether or not waves are surfable at Barra do Ribeira, you can view an alternative image that shows only the swells that were expected to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. Over an average December, swells large enough to cause good for surfing waves at Barra do Ribeira run for about 99% of the time.

read more