Stone Harbor • Statistics for December

December: Wintry Offshore Potential

December closes the year with winter-ready setups. Average swell height remains 0.7m (2.3ft), the period drops to 6.3s and ideal wind sits at 4%. Productive E, ESE, SE and SSE swell directions still combine for nearly 29% of observations, while S adds another 9.0%. The defining feature is wind: W, WNW, NW and NNW directions make up close to 48% of the wind distribution, making offshore and cross-offshore conditions common when the swell arrives. The challenge is that much of the wave energy is short-period windswell, and long-period groundswell events require strong Atlantic storms to line up with a favourable fetch. Water temperature falls to 8.0°C, air averages 5.5°C and precipitation is 3.34mm per day. When an East Coast low deepens just offshore and the wind turns northwest overnight, Stone Harbor can offer some genuinely punchy, wintry holiday surf.