Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
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Today at Playa de Sonabia: Epic! for surfing — 95/100 for intermediate level. Wind 3 kn SW · Waves 1.2 m, 14 s · Tide -1.1 to 0.3 m. Best window around 19:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Playa de Sonabia: 1.1m waves with light cross-shore wind. Surfing looks Excellent in the morning, with E-Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 18°C / 65°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 Sonabia faces NW, straight into the prevailing Atlantic swell window — the reason it has waves at all, and the reason it is rarely flat.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 3 kn. Straight cross-shore sits between the two for surfing — the face stays rideable but the wall is less organised than on a clean offshore.
Over the published window Playa de Sonabia clears 60/100 for 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, 9 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 30 scored spots within reach today, Playa de Sonabia ranks 17th for 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 small, isolated, NW-facing sandy cove at the foot of a mountain, reached only on foot via steep cliff paths through protected dunes — no vehicle access. The sandy bottom is flanked by rock; a beach break offers left- and right-handers, lefts preferred, on N/NW/NE swell. Best at mid-tide, rising; rocky flanks are exposed and hazardous at low tide, with strong rip currents and undertow at all tides. Nudism is practised. No lifeguard service established.
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Wind at Playa de Sonabia today: 3 kn SW (gusting 14 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects 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 Sonabia today: 1.2 m, 14 s period from NW, 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 surfing at Playa de Sonabia today is around 19:00 UTC, when conditions score 95/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Playa de Sonabia 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 de Sonabia 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 Sonabia is a coastal location near Sonabia 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 Sonabia, 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.
