Punta Huanchaco • Statistics for February

February: Summer Stillness, South Swell Faintly Building

February remains in the low-output end of the Huanchaco calendar, although the swell average ticks up to 1.4m (4.6ft). The period lengthens slightly to 12.5s, showing that the Southern Ocean is beginning to wake up. The directional spread is still narrow: SSW accounts for 92 percent of all observed swell, with a secondary S lobe at just 3 percent. The bulk of the energy sits in the 1-1.5m class at 68.6 percent, while 21.9 percent pushes into the 1.5-2m (5-6.5ft) range, a preview of the autumn pulse.

Wind quality remains sub-par. Only 26 percent of the time is the wind truly favorable, and westerly/southwesterly cross-flow is more frequent than in January, with WSW winds now contributing 7.4 percent of the distribution. These are the directions that put chop on a west-facing beach. Water temperature reaches the annual warmest mark of 21.8°C, while air temperatures average 23.7°C, the warmest of the year. It is still very surfable, but pick the early morning windows when an east breeze cleans up the SSW lines before the sea breeze develops.