Puerto Escondido • Statistics for January

January: Clean Winter Groundswell

January opens the year with average swell heights around 4ft (1.2m) and a long average period of 13.0 seconds, so the ocean is far from flat. The swell window is dominated by SSW energy at 33.4 percent, with SW at 17.0 and S at 14.0 percent. Most of that energy arrives in the 1-1.5m band, producing fun, rippable waves in the 3-5ft range rather than big, open faces. There is still a secondary pulse from the SSE and SE directions, but the west-southwest-facing beach is most reliable when the SSW/SW component prevails.

Winds are relatively favourable in January, with ideal offshore flow 31 percent of the time. The dominant wind directions are actually from the NW at 17.7 percent, NNW at 15.5 and WNW at 12.7, which can add a slight cross-offshore texture. More importantly, the N through E quadrant accounts for a healthy share of the month, and when those morning offshores align with a 13-second SSW swell, Puerto cleans up nicely. A dry air mass keeps precipitation minimal at 0.13 mm/day, while air temps average 21.5°C and water temp sits at a warm 27.5°C.