Observation log
Two readings a day when we can manage it. Gaps happen; nobody is paid for this.
This week
| Date / time | Wind | Sea | Air / water | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 07:40 | SW 4 | slight | 14 / 17 | Long swell easing. Terns working the tide line. |
| Sat 19:10 | W 5 | moderate | 15 / 17 | Evening high half a metre over prediction, wind-driven. |
| Sat 08:05 | W 3 | slight | 13 / 16 | Fog on the flats until the sun burned it off. |
| Fri 18:50 | SW 6 | rough | 15 / 16 | Blowing up. Small craft warning on the VHF. |
| Fri 07:55 | S 4 | moderate | 14 / 16 | Barometer falling steadily since dawn. |
| Thu 19:20 | SE 3 | slight | 16 / 16 | Flat calm at slack water, good sunset. |
How we record it
Wind is eyeball plus the handheld cup meter on the groyne, averaged over a minute. Sea state follows the usual scale from calm to phenomenal, though we have never once written phenomenal. Water temperature is a bucket sample off the end of the jetty, which reads a touch warm on a sunny afternoon.
If a reading looks odd we leave it in and mark it rather than tidy it away. A wrong-looking number is often the interesting one.