Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Alex Liivet from Chester, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Today at Herne Bay: Excellent for wing foiling — 89/100 for intermediate level. Wind 7 kn SE · Waves 1.5 m, 7 s · Tide -1.8 to 0.5 m. Best window around 18:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Herne Bay: 0.6m waves with light cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the afternoon, with E-Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 15°C / 59°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.
Herne Bay faces N, and that aspect decides whether the day's wind arrives clean off the water or broken up by the land — which matters more for wing foiling than the forecast speed alone.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 7 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic wing foiling direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Herne Bay clears 60/100 for wing foiling 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, 4 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Herne Bay ranks 4th for wing foiling. 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 long, north-facing shingle-and-sand frontage on the Thames Estuary, sheltered with calm, flat conditions rather than surf — waves rarely exceed 1 m, suiting sailing, windsurfing, swimming and paddleboarding, with sheltered bathing behind a breakwater. Tidal range is large; low tide exposes extensive shingle and mudflat, so entry is easiest at mid-to-high tide. RNLI lifeguards patrol in summer. Dogs are banned from a zoned section, 1 May-30 September.
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Get the free Herne Bay widgetToday's conditions for Herne Bay 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 Herne Bay today: 7 kn SE (gusting 18 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects wing foiling 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 Herne Bay today: 1.5 m, 7 s period from SW, 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 wing foiling at Herne Bay today is around 18:00 UTC, when conditions score 89/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Herne Bay scores 73/100 today for kite foiling — 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.
Herne Bay 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.
Herne Bay is a coastal location near Herne 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 Herne Bay, 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.
