Punta Huanchaco • Statistics for January

January: The Calm Before the Groundswell

The new year opens with the quietest surf window of the year. Average swell height drops to 1.3m (4.3ft) and the average period sits at 12.1s, so the ocean is still holding some long-period pulse, but the size is decidedly fun-sized rather than firing. The wave rose is almost entirely dominated by SSW groundswell: 90.6 percent of all swells arrive from that direction, and over 70 percent of observations fall in the 1-1.5m (3-5ft) class. Because Punta Huanchaco faces west, these oblique SSW lines wrap around the point, but they lack the open power of a true W/NW west swell.

Winds are the bigger limiting factor. The prevailing S-SSW flow supplies roughly two-thirds of all wind observations, and with a west-facing shoreline that is cross-shore to slightly onshore, the ocean often stays lumpy on top. Ideal offshore flow from the E/SE quadrant occurs only about 24 percent of the time, and when it arrives during a lull in the swell, expect glassy, clean peaks in the waist-to-chest-high range. Water temperature is warm at 20.7°C, air temperature averages 22.4°C, and precipitation is minimal at 0.37 mm/day. Patience is needed, but the first good pulses of the year are already forming far to the south.