Abrolhos Islands • Statistics for January

January: Mid-Summer Onshore Grind

January is locked into the Australian summer pattern and the southeast-facing reefs pay the price. The average swell is 2.3m (7.5ft) with an average period of 11.1s, so there is real groundswell moving through the Indian Ocean. The wave rose is heavily weighted toward SSW and S directions - SSW accounts for 40.6% of the swell distribution and S another 14.7% - with most heights in the 1.5-2.5m (5-8ft) band and only around 2.5% exceeding 2.5m (8ft). For this exposure, that SSW/S combo is not the ideal swell window, leaving the better breaks inconsistent.

The wind story is poor. S winds dominate at 41.3%, with SSE close behind at 28.9%, and a large chunk of those blow at 30-50kph. That puts heavy onshore and cross-onshore wind on the surf nearly every afternoon. Offshore W-NNW flow is present only 3% of the time, and when it does appear it is usually a weak dawn land breeze. Expect windblown, lumpy waves with occasional clean head-high-plus bomb sets before the sea breeze ruins it. Water temperature sits at 22.7°C, air temperature around 22.0°C, and rainfall is minimal at 0.21 mm/day.