Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Fabrizio Sciami from Terni, Italy / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Praia da Barra: Excellent for windsurfing — 80/100 for advanced level. Wind 7 kn SE · Waves 2.0 m, 12 s · Tide -1.3 to 0.3 m. Best window around 12:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Praia da Barra: 1.8m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the midday, with Surfing 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.
Praia da Barra faces W, open to the prevailing westerlies, so the wind arrives off the water rather than filtered through the land — the clean, steady flow windsurfing wants, and the reason gusts here are sea breezes rather than land turbulence.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 7 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic windsurfing direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Praia da Barra clears 60/100 for windsurfing at Advanced, Expert levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 0 of 11 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Praia da Barra ranks 30th for windsurfing. 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 large, west-facing Atlantic sand beach beside the harbour jetty at the mouth of the Ria de Aveiro. A sandbar beach break gives left- and right-hand waves, breaking up to 100m on a westerly groundswell with offshore east wind, best in winter; wind exposure rates strongly for kitesurfing and sailing. Dangerous rips are noted near the jetty and the spot can get crowded. Lifeguards patrol 1 June-30 September, 9am-7pm; surf is best near low tide.
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Wind at Praia da Barra today: 7 kn SE (gusting 19 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects windsurfing 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 Praia da Barra today: 2.0 m, 12 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 windsurfing at Praia da Barra today is around 05:00 UTC, when conditions score 40/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Praia da Barra scores 42/100 today for surfing — Poor. 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.
Praia da Barra 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.
Praia da Barra is a coastal location near Barra in Portugal. 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 Praia da Barra, 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.
