Not a problem but just a question. (surf forecast page)

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming started the topic in Wednesday, 6 Nov 2013 at 10:33pm

I like all the new forecast info, but the only thing that i cant figure out is the meaning of the colours of the wind direction arrows and colours of swell size under "swell forecast swell train analysis"

Ive tried to work out what the colours indicate but there doesn't seem to be any clear logic behind the colours?

To me it would make more sense to have both the wind and swell boxes all one colour and then have different shades for different strengths, for instance from very light grey almost white if no wind or very small swell though to black for the upper range of wind strength and swell size and all shades of grey for wind strength and size between.

PS. yes i noticed the arrows are bold for stronger winds or thinner for lighter.

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Thursday, 7 Nov 2013 at 8:51am

Hi ID,

A few things here. The colours in the Surf Forecast Swell Train Analysis table match those of the WAMS.

So say we have a 2m swell, that will be light green in colour. Also if the swell is forecast to be around 6ft which mathematically eqautes to 2m, the shading of that swell will be the same light green. So it just matches with the Wave Height scale from the WAMS.

Regarding your last point, I think you are mixing the wind/period forecasts up.

When you click the advanced button it actually shows each swell train. And the bigger the arrow the bigger the period. It has nothing to do with the wind.

Future articles will point out these extra tools.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Thursday, 7 Nov 2013 at 1:38pm

Cheers, yeah okay i get the swell colours match up with the WAMS colours. (cant believe i didn't pick it up, seems so obvious now)

Okay still a bit confused about the wind arrows though because im looking at the coloured arrows under "wind speed and direction" and the direction and speed is correct with local conditions, thicker arrows for stronger wind strengths (roughly 18knts and up) but the colours don't seem to match up with the colours for wind strengths on the WAMS surface winds?

For example under "wind speed and strength" in forecast coloured lime green is for wind strength of about 10-14knts but in the "WAMS surface winds" the same coloured lime green is 20-25knts?

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Thursday, 7 Nov 2013 at 1:58pm

Ah, yes you're right Indo, those arrow colours are on a seperate scale to everything else and grow in size with speed.

The winds that create swell need to be on a seperate scale, as we never usually see winds of that strength at the coast. But when local winds are 20kts, that is quite strong and needs to be indicated by a stronger colour than green, ie red.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Thursday, 7 Nov 2013 at 3:03pm

okay cheers

yocal's picture
yocal's picture
yocal Friday, 8 Nov 2013 at 4:13pm

 photo Whatisthebluengrey_zpse724ab5c.jpg

So why the dark blue then the grey?

Dark blue = surf height based on the swell height colour graph?

grey = mix of surf heights?

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 8 Nov 2013 at 4:40pm

That looks like an error local, it should be looking like this when there's a different size at north-east/south facing beaches..

Will lodge that as an error, what browser/operating system?

yocal's picture
yocal's picture
yocal Friday, 8 Nov 2013 at 5:03pm

Explorer v9 and windows 7

Excellent I was hoping that it was an error and there was a split colour scheme to assist my fetish for swell chart colours green through to dark red