Capistrano Beach Nearshore, CA (284)

NDBC station 46285 (Capistrano Beach Nearshore, CA) is a moored standard meteorological station at 33.445°N 117.680°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; and tide predictions from the nearest NOAA CO-OPS station.

PierMonkey uses buoy 46285 as the observation source for the surf forecast at The Wedge, about 25 km away. Swell that registers here shows up at the break shortly afterwards, which is what makes this station worth watching.