Caswell Beach • Statistics for January

January: Midwinter Power and Atlantic Storms

The North Atlantic hits its full winter stride in January. Average wave heights reach 5ft (1.6m) and average periods climb to 10.7s, so the energy arriving at Caswell is powerful, long-period groundswell. The dominant direction is WSW, with W next, meaning a lot of swell is aimed too far west of the south-facing beach; still, a solid 12% arrives from the more favourable SSE through SW window, and those pulses are the ones to watch. Ideal offshore winds from N/NNW only occur about 13% of the time, so the key is hunting the windows behind cold fronts when the wind turns out of the north and cleans up the long Atlantic lines. Air temperatures average a chilly 5.9°C, sea water sits at 8.7°C, and with 3.54mm/day of precipitation it is raw, wet, heavy-duty winter surfing.