Turtle Head • Statistics for August

August: The Heaviest Habagat Swell, But at a Cost

August delivers the towering height of the southwest monsoon. The average swell climbs to 1.3m (4.3ft) and the period edges up to 7.4 seconds. The SW source remains relentless with 48.0 percent of the swell from SW and 15.4 percent from WSW, and notably more energy in the 1.5-2m (5-6.5ft) and 2-2.5m (6.5-8ft) bins. This is serious, powerful surf - physically heavy and demanding. Direction-wise, this is precisely the swell that Turtle Head was built for, and when a strong typhoon near the Philippines injects longer-period energy into the SW-W window, the waves can turn into proper freight trains.

The trade-off: wind quality is awful. Ideal surf wind occurs only 19 percent of the time, with the wind rose overwhelmed by S (24.2 percent) and SSW (27.2 percent); the SSW component often blows at 20-30kph, strong enough to whip the ocean into a sea state of whitecaps and crumpling faces. The heavy, short-period swell is therefore mostly unmakeable. Air temperature is 26.4°C, water 29.8°C, and precipitation peaks at 15.83 mm/day. Only a serious swell-watcher will find an August day at Turtle Head worth the squeeze, usually right before or after a typhoon passes and the onshore gale relents.