Ingonish Beach • Statistics for August

August: Warmest Water and a Sideways Glance at Hurricane Season

August is the best month for pure comfort surf. Water temperature reaches its annual peak of 18.7°C, air temps average 18.3°C, and ideal offshore wind clocks in at 49%, the highest of the entire year. The average swell is still small, around 2.5ft (0.8m), with a 6.9s period, and S/SSE/SW energy dominates the wave rose, so Ingonish sees mostly soft, summer windswell. But August is not completely without hope. As tropical systems spin up off the Eastern Seaboard, the east-facing beach can catch E/SE long-period pulses if a hurricane or tropical storm makes the right turn up the Gulf Stream; the ESE and E swell totals of 6.4% and 6.0% are modest, but the quality potential is much higher than the average period suggests. When a good tropical swell arrives with light WSW flow, it transforms the cape into clean, fun-sized walls. For most of the month, though, expect small waves, warm water, and plenty of surfers enjoying the Cape Breton summer.