Enniscrone • Statistics for January

January: The Depths of Winter - Maximum Power

This is the peak of the Irish winter surf season, and Enniscrone sits right in the firing line. The average swell height checks in at a solid 9ft (2.7m) with a long-period 12.5s average, placing the bulk of the energy in the powerful 10-14s band. The wave rose shows a clear dominance from the west and west-northwest, with those two directions accounting for over 25% of all swells. Combined with the northwest and north-northwest windows, well over a third of the month's waves arrive from the favourable half of the compass. The dynamic is straightforward: deep North Atlantic lows, cold fronts and the occasional negative NAO blocking pattern send persistent long-period groundswell marching into the bay.

The limiting factor is wind. Only 23% of the time is the wind ideal - that is, blowing from the south to west-southwest, off the coast. The dominant wind rose is actually packed with south, south-southwest and west-southwest directions (together around 44% of all wind), but a lot of that comes in at moderate to fresh speeds. When winds swing west to north-northwest, which happens around a fifth of the time, Enniscrone becomes messy and closed-out. With an average air temperature of 5.4°C, water temperatures of 9.4°C and around 4.13mm of precipitation per day, this is a month for thick hoods, warm boots and picking your windows carefully.