Fortunes Rocks Beach Surf Stats

This image shows the range of swells directed at Fortunes Rocks Beach through an average December and is based upon 2953 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast surf and wind right at the coastline so we have chosen the optimum grid node based on what we know about Fortunes Rocks Beach, and at Fortunes Rocks Beach the best grid node is 30 km away (19 miles). The rose diagram describes 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 were forecast 57% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and red shows the biggest swells, greater than >3m (>10ft). In each graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how frequently that size swell was forecast. The diagram suggests that the dominant swell direction, shown by the longest spokes, was ESE, whereas the the prevailing wind blows from the WNW. Because the wave model grid is out to sea, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Fortunes Rocks Beach and offshore. We combine 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 good for surfing at Fortunes Rocks Beach, you can load a different image that shows only the swells that were expected to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. In a typical December, swells large enough to cause clean enough to surf waves at Fortunes Rocks Beach run for about 43% of the time.

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