Papenoo • Statistics for February

February: Long-Period North Pulses with a Trade Wind Ceiling

February is a continuation of January's north swell season, with the average swell height ticking up to 1.7m (5.5ft) and the average period holding at 12.2s. Swell from N, NNW, and NW combines for around 17 percent of the total, and the adjacent NNE-NE quadrant adds another 13 percent, giving Papenoo plenty of open-ocean exposure to work with. Most energy arrives in the 1.5-2.5m (5-8ft) range, and any 15-19s groundswell that sneaks in can produce heavy, lined-up reef waves.

The catch is that E trade winds are even more locked in, blowing from E and ENE around 43 percent of the time, with ideal S-SSW-SW wind still only around 14 percent. When an upper-level trough shifts the wind offshore, the result is excellent. But typical days have bumpy sideshore wind on the face, and the onshore N-NNW-NW sector can also spike during convective outflow. Water temperature sits at 28.6°C and rainfall remains high at 5.68mm/day, so expect muggy tropical conditions between pulses.