Santa Maria • Statistics for July

July: Clean Soft Summer Trades, Smaller Waves

July brings the cleanest wind statistics of the entire year at Santa Maria. Ideal offshore winds blow 40% of the time, with NNW alone at 14.1% and N at 11.6% - a huge improvement over the 6-10% of winter. This is thanks to a northward shift of the Azores high and a relaxing of the raw NE trade flow, allowing more local sea-breeze and offshore variations. The trade-off is size: average swell is 1.3m (4ft) and the average period is only 8.1s. NNE still supplies 70.3% of the swell, NE 18.1%, but the heights are mostly in the 1-1.5m (3-5ft) class (51.2%), with just 15.3% at 1.5-2m (5-6ft). Those small, clean lines can still be great fun on a summer shortboard, especially in the mornings. Water temp is 24.6°C, air temp averages 24.2°C, and precipitation remains low at 0.23 mm/day. July is a beautiful time to be in the water, but don't expect to be charging.