Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: PAUL FARMER / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Birling Gap: Good for swimming — 77/100 for expert level. Wind 7 kn E · Tide -1.7 to 0.7 m. Best window around 01:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Birling Gap: 0.5m waves with light cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Excellent in the midday, with E-Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 17°C / 63°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.
Birling Gap faces SW, open to the prevailing swell and wind. For swimming that is the hard direction: expect the surface to be workable only when the forecast genuinely drops, not on an average day.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 7 kn. Light enough that the surface should stay workable for swimming.
Over the published window Birling Gap clears 60/100 for swimming at Intermediate, Advanced, Expert levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 10 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Birling Gap ranks 8th for swimming. 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 dramatic, remote shingle-and-chalk-reef beach below tall chalk cliffs, within a Marine Conservation Zone with a no-take intertidal zone. The reef break is small, inconsistent, best with SW swell and offshore NE wind, used by surfers, windsurfers and kitesurfers; submerged rocks are the main hazard, plus weever fish in the sand. Only accessible around low tide - the sea reaches the cliff base at high water. No lifeguard; steps may close after cliff falls.
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Get the free Birling Gap widgetToday's conditions for Birling Gap 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 Birling Gap today: 7 kn E (gusting 17 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects swimming 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 Birling Gap today: 0.9 m, 4 s period from SE, mushy 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 swimming at Birling Gap today is around 05:00 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, Birling Gap scores 72/100 today for kite surfing — Good. 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.
Birling Gap 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.
Birling Gap is a coastal location near Birling Gap 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 Birling Gap, 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.
