Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Bill Boaden / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Porthkidney Beach: Excellent for swimming — 82/100 for expert level. Wind 4 kn SE · Tide -1.3 to 0.5 m. Best window around 01:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Porthkidney Beach: 0.2m waves with light cross-shore wind. E-Foiling looks Excellent in the late morning, with Paddleboarding also worth considering. Water temperature is 16°C / 61°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.
Porthkidney Beach faces N. For swimming how much swell and wind that aspect keeps out matters more than the open-water forecast.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 4 kn. Light enough that the surface should stay workable for swimming.
Over the published window Porthkidney Beach clears 60/100 for swimming 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 31 scored spots within reach today, Porthkidney Beach is the best of them for swimming — 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 remote, undeveloped mile-long sandy beach at the mouth of the Hayle Estuary, north-facing into St Ives Bay, usually near-deserted with no facilities. Flat and firm at low tide, opening into vast sands good for SUP and kayaking; surf is fickle, needing very large swell at the northern end. Swimming is discouraged near the river mouth due to strong, unpredictable currents. RNLI lifeguards patrol mid-July to early September. Dogs allowed year-round.
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Get the free Porthkidney Beach widgetToday's conditions for Porthkidney 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 Porthkidney Beach today: 4 kn SE (gusting 15 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 Porthkidney Beach today: 0.3 m, 14 s period from NE, surging 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 Porthkidney Beach today is around 01:00 UTC, when conditions score 82/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Porthkidney Beach scores 90/100 today for windsurfing — 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.
Porthkidney 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.
Porthkidney Beach is a coastal location near Carbis Bay 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 Porthkidney 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.
