Hobe Sound Public Beach • Statistics for January

January: Cold Fronts And The North Atlantic Wake-Up

January serves up the first real taste of winter surf at Hobe Sound Public Beach. The average swell height sits at 4ft (1.2m) with a period near 7.7s, placing most waves in the 'average, punchy, rideable' category. The wave rose is heavily loaded from the NNE, NE, ENE and E - the optimal swell window for this ENE-facing beach - with a combined 56 percent of all swell coming from these directions. The NE and NNE quadrants also produce the most rideable 3-5ft (1-1.5m) and 5-6.5ft (1.5-2m) bands, so when a cold front drives low pressure off the Southeast coast, the beach can light up with solid, rippable walls. The wind regime is the catch: ideal offshore flow from the SSW, SW, WSW and W is present only 21 percent of the time. These offshore windows typically arrive in the wake of a front, when high pressure nips in and the wind clocks to the west. Northerly and easterly winds are common in the frontal pattern, and those are onshore here, chopping up the surface. With water temperatures at 23.5°C and mild air temperatures around 20.2°C, a good swell with an offshore west wind in January is a high-quality, warm-water winter surf session.