Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Karan Jain from Washington, DC, USA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Playa Chica: Good for kite surfing — 73/100 for intermediate level. Wind 9 kn W · Waves 0.8 m, 14 s · Tide -0.6 to -0.1 m. Best window around 06:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Playa Chica: 0.8m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the midday, with Surfing also worth considering. Water temperature is 21°C / 70°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 Chica faces SE, so the prevailing westerly comes over the land before it reaches you. For kite surfing that usually means a gustier, less predictable flow than the raw wind speed suggests.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 9 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic kite surfing direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Playa Chica clears 60/100 for kite surfing at every ability from Beginner to Expert — an unusually broad spot, which normally means a range of conditions rather than one narrow sweet spot. Today, 11 of 11 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 30 scored spots within reach today, Playa Chica ranks 21st for kite surfing. The order changes by discipline: the same conditions that put a spot top for one sport can drop it down the list for another.
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.
This is a tiny, sandy cove enclosed by rocks and harbour walls at the southern tip of town, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. Poniente wind creates sheltered, flat water suited to expert kitesurfing out of season, but it is forbidden in summer (roughly July-Sept) when reserved for families. Water is cold even in summer, with strong currents. Municipal lifeguards with jet skis cover the coast daily, 1 July-30 Sept, 12:00-20:00. Dogs not permitted.
Put live Playa Chica conditions on your own website — a free embeddable widget, updated hourly, in three sizes. No account needed.
Get the free Playa Chica widgetToday's conditions for Playa Chica 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 Chica today: 9 kn W (gusting 22 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects kite surfing 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 Chica today: 0.8 m, 14 s period from E, closing 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 surfing at Playa Chica today is around 06:00 UTC, when conditions score 73/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Playa Chica scores 94/100 today for surfing — Epic!. 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 Chica 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 Chica is a coastal location near Tarifa 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 Chica, 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.
