Long Sands • Statistics for April

April: Spring Swell from the North and Northeast

April is the transition month, and you can feel it in the numbers. Average swell height dips to 1.0m (3ft) and the period shortens to 7.3s, meaning a lower-energy, more wind-driven sea state. The direction pattern becomes heavily skewed toward the NNE, which accounts for a huge 21.6% of total swell observations; add NE, ENE and E and the NE quadrant is by far the dominant source. There's still some 1.5-2m (5-7ft) juice in the mix from the NNE, but a much larger percentage is small, fun-sized 0.5-1m (2-3ft) surf.

The wind profile begins to lose its winter reliability. Ideal surf wind drops to 25%, the lowest of the cold season, as onshore NNE and NE winds become more frequent. That said, W/WSW/SW winds still occur almost 27% of the time, and a good spring day with a stiff west wind and a fading NNE groundswell can be surprisingly clean. Air temperatures nudge up to 7.4°C and water temperature rises to 7.8°C, so the air starts to feel a little softer even if the sea hasn't caught up yet.