Niijima - Habushiura Surf Stats

This chart illustrates the variation of swells directed at Niijima - Habushiura through a typical December, based on 2953 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coast so we have chosen the most applicable grid node based on what we know about Niijima - Habushiura. In the case of Niijima - Habushiura, the best grid node is 26 km away (16 miles). The rose diagram illustrates the distribution of swell directions and swell sizes, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing without direction information. Five colours illustrate increasing wave sizes. Blue shows the smallest swells, less that 0.5m (1.5 feet) high. These were forecast only 89% of the time. Green and yellow show increasing swell sizes and red illustrates the largest swells, greater than >3m (>10ft). In both graphs, the area of any colour is proportional to how often that size swell occurs. The diagram indicates that the prevailing swell direction, shown by the longest spokes, was S, whereas the the most common wind blows from the NW. Because the wave model grid is offshore, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Niijima - Habushiura and away from the coast. We group these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To avoid confusion we don't show these in the rose plot. Because wind determines whether or not waves are good for surfing at Niijima - Habushiura, you can load a different image that shows only the swells that were forecast to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. Over an average December, swells large enough to cause clean enough to surf waves at Niijima - Habushiura run for about 11% of the time.

read more