Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: rene boulay / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Today at Playa de El Médano: Epic! for kite foiling — 96/100 for expert level. Wind 11 kn E · Waves 0.8 m, 10 s · Tide -0.5 to 0.3 m. Best window around 20:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Playa de El Médano: 0.6m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the evening, with Wing Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 25°C / 76°F.
Forecast updated · ShorSense™
Today plus the next two days are free for everyone — scored in 3-hour windows, just like the app. The full 8-day forecast lives in the 4Shor app.
Playa de El Médano faces SE, so the prevailing westerly comes over the land before it reaches you. For kite foiling that usually means a gustier, less predictable flow than the raw wind speed suggests.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 11 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic kite foiling direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Playa de El Médano clears 60/100 for kite foiling at Intermediate, Advanced, Expert levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 11 of 11 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 7 scored spots within reach today, Playa de El Médano is the best of them for kite foiling — so if you are travelling for it, this is the one.
Satellite-derived bathymetry with 10 m pixels and 10 cm vertical resolution out to ~40 m depth. The shape of the seabed is what determines where and how waves break.
Most apps run a single global model at 9–25 km. We blend regional NWP from national meteorological offices at 1.3–2 km — UK Met Office UKV, Météo-France AROME HD, ItaliaMeteo ICON-2I — with ECMWF IFS for the 8-day horizon. Finer resolution means the sea breeze, cliff funnelling and bay shadowing that changes everything for a session.
A nearshore wave model propagates the spectrum across the bathymetric mesh — modelling refraction, shoaling, dissipation, focusing and breaking as it goes. Most apps stop at swell + wind. We go further.
10 sport models × 4 ability levels weight wave height, period, wind, tide and breaking conditions differently — calibrated against ridden sessions so the scores mean what they say.
A long, SSE-facing sandy bay with mellow beach-break waves and a left-hand reef break on its outer section, in a corridor of constant NE trade winds. The town-end is calmer, suited to families; the far end is designated for windsurfing and kitesurfing by experienced riders. Blue Flag certified, with a sea rescue team present and workable water entry at all tide stages. Submerged rocks lie near the reef.
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Get the free Playa de El Médano widgetToday's conditions for Playa de El Médano are free. Unlock the full 8-day forecast and per-sport alerts that ping you when this location is about to fire. more than 2,500 European locations, scored from the seabed up.
Wind at Playa de El Médano today: 11 kn E (gusting 26 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects kite foiling conditions significantly — offshore winds produce cleaner, glassier surfaces while onshore winds add chop. These are daily averages; the 4Shor app shows hourly detail.
Waves at Playa de El Médano today: 0.8 m, 10 s period from S, reforming character. 4Shor derives nearshore wave conditions from ECMWF IFS 9-km atmospheric data and the IBI regional ocean model, updated hourly.
The best window for kite foiling at Playa de El Médano today is around 06:00 UTC, when conditions score 88/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Playa de El Médano scores 85/100 today for surfing — Excellent. A score of 65–79 is Good for a beginner; 80+ is Excellent (90+ is Epic!); below 45 the session is usually not worth it. 4Shor scores every location across Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert levels.
Playa de El Médano is scored for Surfing, Windsurfing, Kite Surfing, Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling, E-Foiling, Paddleboarding, Swimming, Kayaking, Canoeing in the 4Shor forecast system. Conditions are rated Beginner through Expert for each sport, updated every hour, so you always know whether the session is worth the drive.
Playa de El Médano is a coastal location near El Cabezo in Spain. It is one of more than 2,500 European water-sport locations scored daily by 4Shor.
4Shor's ShorSense™ system combines satellite-derived seafloor mapping, nearshore wave models, wind and tide data to generate a hyper-local forecast. At Playa de El Médano, conditions are scored hourly on a 0–100 scale for each sport and ability level. A score of 80+ means Excellent (90+ Epic!); 65–79 is Good; below 45 the session is usually not worth the drive.
Questions about 4Shor itself — accuracy, pricing, the free trial — are answered on the FAQ page.
