Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Helen Steed / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Southbourne Beach: Excellent for kite surfing — 87/100 for intermediate level. Wind 13 kn E · Waves 1.0 m, 7 s · Tide -0.8 to -0.2 m. Best window around 13:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Southbourne Beach: 0.7m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the morning, with Wing Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 17°C / 62°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.
Southbourne Beach faces S, and that aspect decides whether the day's wind arrives clean off the water or broken up by the land — which matters more for kite surfing than the forecast speed alone.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 13 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 Southbourne Beach 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, 10 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Southbourne Beach is the best of them for kite surfing — 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 wide, sand-bottomed beach break sheltered within Poole Bay, shaped by groynes anchoring the sandbars. Waves are short, sucky shorebreak breaking up to 50 m on south-to-southwest swell; conditions are inconsistent, winter favoured. Watersports are zoned: red-and-yellow flags mark swim-only areas, black-and-white chequered zones for kite/windsurf launch. RNLI lifeguards patrol 10:00-18:00 in season. Tidal range 1.5-2 m; keep clear of groynes.
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Get the free Southbourne Beach widgetToday's conditions for Southbourne Beach 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 Southbourne Beach today: 13 kn E (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 Southbourne Beach today: 1.0 m, 7 s period from SE, 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 Southbourne Beach today is around 13:00 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, Southbourne Beach scores 88/100 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.
Southbourne Beach 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.
Southbourne Beach is a coastal location near Wick in United Kingdom. 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 Southbourne Beach, 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.
