Global Weather
Waves are created by the action of wind on water. Wind is the flow of air from warmer, lighter pockets (regions of high pressure) toward areas of cooler, denser air (low pressure). The Sun warms the air in Earth’s atmosphere, so you could say that all waves are created by the Sun.
That’s a ridiculously simplified version of a very complicated topic. Although weather prediction and wave forecasting have improved tremendously in the past 20 years, there are still a lot of unknowns and slippery variables.
To begin your own study of weather and wave patterns, see the sites below. Use these sites to help predict when and where your next session will be. For a regional breakdown of the same, see the Trip section.
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- Coastalwatch More than just a catchy name, Coastalwatch has provided daily surf reports and forecasts for Australia since 1998.
- SAWS The South African Weather Service site
- WU Marine Weather The motion of the ocean from the Weather Underground
- NEA Singapore’s weather service
- BBC World Weather The Beeb provides a look at worldwide weather.
- Stormsurf Global marine weather and forecast site.
- Intellicast Weather observations and predictions
- GEOS NOAA’s geostationary satellite images
- Oceanweather Marine weather data and maps and models worldwide
- SMN Servicio Meteorologico Nacional, Mexico’s weather service
- BBC Marine Weather An index of coastal forecasts and observations around Northern Europe.
- North Atlantic Wave Model Stormsurf’s North Atlantic wave prediction model
- Magic Seaweed Based in Devon, England, Magic Seaweed has forecasts and surf info for the whole world.
- NOAA Wavewatch This wave model runs four times a day, offerring forecasts five days ahead.
- Scripps Atlantic Hurricane Map A dozen years old and still one of the best hurrcane trackers available
- Wavewatch Waves, weather and news from Surfer and Surfing Magazines
- UW Space Center Wisconsin’s collection of satellite images and data models
- The Earth Institute Columbia University’s Earth Institute monitors climate, energy and water issues around the world.
- LDEO The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory does research on oceans.
- Surfline Surfline’s network of surf cams and surf forecasting is unequalled.
- CDIP UCSD’s Coastal Data Information Program provides ocean reports and forecasts.
- NOAA The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has the largest network of data buoys on the planet.
- Weatheroffice Canada Canada’s national weather service
- Fiji Meteorology Fiji’s official weather service
- Weather.com The Weather Channel has impressive worldwide coverage.
- Stormsurf–Pacific An index of satellite images and other current weather data across the Pacific Ocean
- Surf Forecast A global surf forecast site based in the UK; extensive list of surf cams
- Tide Forecast Still haven’t found an all-purpose global tide-caster, but this comes close
- Wetsand Global surf and weather site with good wavecasts 5 days out
- Buoyweather Subscription offshore weather forecast service from Surfline
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