Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: photograph by Berthold Werner, edited by Stefan Vladuck / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Today at Playa del Médano: Excellent for kite surfing — 87/100 for intermediate level. Wind 11 kn E · Waves 1.1 m, 9 s · Tide -0.5 to 0.3 m. Best window around 21:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Playa del Médano: 0.6m waves with moderate onshore 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 del Médano faces E, 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 onshore at 11 kn. Onshore is the safest direction for kite surfing here — anything that goes wrong drifts you back to the beach — at the cost of a choppier surface.
Over the published window Playa del Médano clears 60/100 for kite surfing 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 del Médano ranks 2nd 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 rocky, expert-level windsurfing wave spot at a bay's north end, with roughly 300 windy days a year. Cross-onshore waves break over a mixed sand-and-volcanic-reef bottom onto a narrow, hazardous rocky entry with protruding reef slabs, sea urchins, and a large boulder that is a fin/board hazard at low tide. Low-to-mid tide gives the safer entry window. A council rescue boat covers the wider bay, though this exposed sub-spot sits out of lifeguards' sight.
Put live Playa del Médano conditions on your own website — a free embeddable widget, updated hourly, in three sizes. No account needed.
Get the free Playa del Médano widgetToday's conditions for Playa del 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 del Médano today: 11 kn E (gusting 26 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 del Médano today: 1.1 m, 9 s period from S, crumbling 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 del Médano today is around 21:00 UTC, when conditions score 87/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Playa del Médano scores 57/100 today for kite surfing — Okay. 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 del Médano is scored for 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 del 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 del 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.
