San Francisco Bar, CA (142)

NDBC station 46237 (San Francisco Bar, CA) is a platform - special marine observation station at 37.788°N 122.634°W, operated by SCRIPPS. PierMonkey reads its observations straight from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center and republishes them free, with no account required to see current conditions.

It reports significant wave height, dominant and average wave period, wind speed, gusts and direction, air and sea-surface temperature, and barometric pressure; full spectral wave-energy density, which separates overlapping swell trains by period and direction; ocean-current profiles through the water column; and tide predictions from the nearest NOAA CO-OPS station.

A 16-day wave and wind forecast from the NOAA GFS-Wave model is available for this location alongside the live readings, so you can see both what the buoy is measuring now and what is expected to arrive.

PierMonkey uses buoy 46237 as the observation source for the surf forecast at Mavericks and Ocean Beach (SF), about 35 km away. Swell that registers here shows up at those breaks shortly afterwards, which is what makes this station worth watching.