Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: El Pantera / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Today at Playa de la Ballena: Good for kite surfing — 79/100 for intermediate level. Wind 7 kn W · Waves 0.8 m, 13 s · Tide -0.9 to 0.2 m. Best window around 23:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Playa de la Ballena: 0.7m waves with light cross-shore wind. Surfing looks Excellent in the late morning, with Kite Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 22°C / 71°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 la Ballena faces SW, open to the prevailing westerlies, so the wind arrives off the water rather than filtered through the land — the clean, steady flow kite surfing wants, and the reason gusts here are sea breezes rather than land turbulence.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 7 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 de la Ballena clears 60/100 for kite surfing at Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 7 of 11 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 30 scored spots within reach today, Playa de la Ballena ranks 14th 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.
A long, semi-wild Atlantic sandy beach backed by dunes and pine forest, with a variable-peak beach break, gentle in summer and spring, more powerful through autumn and winter. Westerly wind favours kite and windsurfing here. An extensive tidal flat is exposed at low tide, with mid-to-high tide preferable for entry. A sailing school operates on site; bathing is forbidden at its vessel channel. Lifeguards and SOS phones operate mid-June to mid-September.
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Get the free Playa de la Ballena widgetToday's conditions for Playa de la Ballena 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 la Ballena today: 7 kn W (gusting 19 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 de la Ballena today: 0.8 m, 13 s period from N, peeling 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 de la Ballena today is around 23:00 UTC, when conditions score 79/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Playa de la Ballena scores 93/100 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 de la Ballena 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 la Ballena is a coastal location near Costa Ballena 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 la Ballena, 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.
