The wind reached force out around midnight even in sheltered Penzance. The 1st gale since 10th February (a very long gap for this location) and the gust of 53mph the highest of the year.
78mph recorded at Lands End, and a similar value at St Ives. So at last a gale worth the name! A tree down in the wasteland next to my house.
A good example today of why the way that wave buoy data is commonly reported is misleading.
Currently at Sevenstones at Lands End
A 10 second period, biggish wave but low energy short period? Well no, dig down into the data at the nearest buoy that gives more useful information (off Perranporth on the north coast of west Cornwall.)
The energy is concentrated in two swells, with 12 & 14 second periods. Because of the locally generated low energy short period 'wind' wave, the crude averaging at Sevenstones, and other wave buoys, presents a rather meaningless picture. There is no indication of the current huge power of the long period swell.
For comparison, yesterday at Perranporth. The swell is 6X more powerful today, even though the wave height is not much greater.
Yesterday the low energy wind waves were dominant.
Graham
Penzance