Monday
Weather
The force 4 to 5 SE’ly wind will be the consistent feature. However, weather-wise it will be a day of two halves… dry and bright in the morning (max temp 17°C), then cloudier with occasional showers from lunchtime onward. The showers don’t look especially heavy until the late evening, when they will start to merge into more persistent rain, and that’s also when the SE’ly wind will strengthen to force 6 or 7. Hopefully you will have already battened down the hatches, because after midnight the wind will veer W’ly and strengthen to gale force 8 (sleep well everyone).
Surf and the Water
Super-clean 2-3 foot surf, not ghe biggest but certainly the cleanest waves of the week, so be sure to jump on them if you’re not exactly the most hardcore of surfers. Swimmers will also want to pounce on this day, if the west-coast bays are your favourite. High tide will be best… 8m at 10:10am. Low tide will be in the fading light around 4:40pm.
Tuesday
Weather
The wind will back from a W’ly direction at dawn to a SW’ly direction by late morning, but it will remain strong force 6 to 7 throughout the day. Furthermore, when the heaviest showers sweep through, the gusts will be even more vicious and there might even be the odd flash of lightning. Max temp 16°C, min temp 12-13°C.
Surf and the Water
Cleanish 6-8 foot surf on the west coast, but it will be a bit of a battle to catch the waves with that wind blowing across the face. Windsurfers will be absolutely loving it though. As for the swimmers, well Fermain will really be the ideal spot, but it could be ok in some of the most sheltered northern and western nooks around high tide… 7.5m around 11:20am.
Wednesday to Friday
Weather
Winds will be fresh force 5 SW’ly through most of Wednesday and Friday, but likely just light force 3 W’ly through most of Thursday. As for the weather story however, that will be the inverse of the wind story, with Thursday looking absolutely sopping wet for a large portion of the day, and the other days only being blighted by a couple of snappy showers here and there. Max temps still around 16°C, min temps 12-13°C.
Surf and the Water
The surf is going to be proper solid throughout (probably around 8 feet at Vazon) and there will certainly be some times when conditions are really clean, either due to the wind being very light onshore or a strong offshore. However, these times will be punctuated by periods of choppy frothy cauldron-like conditions. Obviously, tying in with these changing surf conditions there will be moments when the windsurfers are thriving. As for the swimming conditions, well they will practically always be best on the east coast, especially down at Fermain. Tides will be high in the afternoons (roughly 7.3m, 7.5m and 8.2m respectively).
The Weekend
Weather
Strong SW’ly winds, occasional blustery showers, punctuated by sunny intervals. Both days looking pretty much the same really. Town and Fernain will be the warmest parts of the island, where temperatures should peak at 17°C by day and only drop off to 14C overnight. How’s that for a mild Budloe weekend!
Surf and the Water
The current idea is that the surf will really drop off on Saturday, down to around 3 feet, before bouncing right back to a whomping 10-12 feet on Sunday. It’s a long way off though, so we might find that both days are very different when the time comes. Winds will be strong but not gale force like earlier in the week, because the deep low, responsible for that developing swell, should stay well away to the northwest of Britain. Swimming conditions will be best out east, just like on the previous days. Tides will be high around sunset, roughly 8.6m on Saturday and 9m on Sunday.
The next forecast update will be on Wednesday morning…
Previous Weather Fox ForecastsTide Tables
Swim Conditions
Ormering
Lihou Causeway