Swell angle.

The reason why we are displaying the california forecasted swell direction in degrees, and east coast in directions (ie. SSW), is because in socal the exact direction is so critical because of the offshore shadowing and refraction process in the SoCal bight region.

I think it is easier to read SSW, then 194 degrees, but we will be redeveloping the surf forecast swellplots in the coming months, and I think it is a good idea to include an option to know the exact degree of swell direction.

One thing you have to keep in mind, is on any given swell, there is a range of degrees of the swell, so a swell that shows 180 degrees, might actually have a range from 170 to 190.

 

Both Surfline and NOAA wavewatch III have been producing forecasts for the entire east coast with swell angle in degrees for many years. I'm not sure that the precise swell angle is that useful for east coast conditions anyway, since we get such short lived swells, mixtures of swells, and severe refraction from the shallow continental shelf that the deep water swell angle is bent like crazy as it wraps in accross the shelf.

 

True. I could change this in a minute, and have the degrees being shown... But as you mentioned, i found it useful and easier to read in the swellplots to show the direction. The thing is, east coasters are not used to reading degrees. They are used to S, SSE, SE, etc.

We've got some cool changes ahead.

 

You should make the forcasts show six or seven days. That would be much better then five.

 

a forecast that far out would be about as reliable as a MSW 2 day forecast

 

True but it doesn't matter...people are already going nuts hyping swells 5 days out. For every person who complains about the hype 10 other people are fully into it and 7 days out is just that much more site traffic.