The Live Wave-Energy Map
See every swell on Earth as a moving field of color — where the energy is now, and where it's headed over the next five days.
What is a wave-energy map?
A wave-energy map paints the ocean by how much swell is running: calm seas read blue, building swell green and yellow, and serious storm energy glows orange, red, and purple. PierMonkey renders it from NOAA's GFS-Wave model — the same global forecast the pros use — updated with every model run.
Two views are built in. Height shows raw significant wave height. Juice weights height by wave period, so a long-period groundswell — the kind surfers actually want — lights up brighter than the same-size wind chop. One tap switches between them.
Play the forecast like a movie
A timeline scrubber at the bottom of the map plays the next five days of forecast in 3-hour frames — 41 frames of the entire planet's sea state. Drag it, step it, or press play and watch storms spin up, hurl swell across whole ocean basins, and land on your coastline days before it arrives.
Swell-direction arrows ride the same timeline, so you can read both the power and the direction of every swell train at a glance.
Data refreshes with every NOAA model run — four times a day.
Storms sit inside the swell they make
Hurricanes and typhoons appear on the same map with their official forecast tracks — and as you scrub forward, each storm marker rides its predicted path while the energy field it generates blooms around it. When the map shows a red ball of energy heading for your coast, you can see exactly what's making it.
Open the map — it's free and live right now
The map and live conditions are open to everyone. A free account unlocks full 16-day forecasts and custom swell alerts.