Wind and Sea Swimming

Wind is the most important weather factor to consider when sea swimming as it affects the sea state and how safe you'll be when in the water.

This article follows forms part of the pay for learning series of articles. Links below for further articles.

“Weather and Sea Swimming” “How to Read Popular Forecasts for Sea Swimmers” “Tides and Tidal Flow explained for Sea Swimmers” and “The Wonder of Waves”

WIND: THE BASICS

WIND DIRECTION:

When referring to wind direction, it is where the wind is coming from. A westerly wind comes from the west. This is really important to know as the direction in which your swim spot faces and how sheltered it is will dictate how the sea surface is affected by wind from different directions. I live on the the South Coast of the UK and my beach faces south/south west. If the wind is coming from the south or the west it is blowing from the sea towards the beach. We have no shelter from natural or manmade structures. If it blows hard enough from this direction it will not be safe to swim as the waves it creates will be too dangerous to navigate.

The prevailing in UK wind is south westerly so there are a lot of days when we just can’t get in the sea!