NE.SURF · 42°59′N · 70°46′W · GULF OF MAINE · NOAA CHART 13278

⚑NE Surf

NEW ENGLAND SURF TRACKER

Live swell, wind, and tide for the NH seacoast and southern Maine.

new here? start with this

Read How to Forecast and How the Score Works first, then come back to the Call. Spots run south to north: Hampton NH → Rye → York ME → Ogunquit → Kennebunk → Scarborough.

practice: make the call first

NE Surf is a free, live surf forecast and forecasting teacher for the New Hampshire seacoast and southern Maine: Jenness Beach, Cable Road, Rye Rocks and Bass Beach in Rye and North Hampton; The Wall in Hampton; Long Sands and Short Sands in York; Ogunquit Rivermouth; Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk; Higgins Beach in Scarborough; Old Orchard Beach. It reads NOAA buoy 44098 and 44007, tide stations, wind models, and National Hurricane Center storm data, and it writes the forecasting reasoning out so you learn to make the call yourself. JavaScript is required for the live instruments.

Scanning the coast…

The Forecaster's Call

Loading live data…

Today's Board every spot, right now · tap to switch · scores are part heuristic

#	Spot	Score	Limiter
Scoring the coast…

The Week Chart every spot × every window, seven days · D dawn · M midday · E evening · tap a row to switch · swipe sideways →

Scanning…

cell ink = the best daylight hour in that window · poor · fair · good · firing · ⚑ = the week's best call · deep-water model plus heuristics, confirm on the buoy before driving

Swell Engines the storms that make the week above · tropical dial + arrival trains

Storm bearing dial · named Atlantic systems from Rye

checking the tropics…

Arrival trains · swell events at this spot's cell, 12-day window (the dial is basin-wide; the trains are local)

bars run build → peak → decay, detected from OFFSHORE deep-water model height at this spot's cell · signature reads the peak hour, labeled -TYPE because it names the swell's shape, not a confirmed storm · tropical-type (long-period E–S) · nor'easter-type (NE–E mid-period) · windswell (short local) · favored spots are a deep-water direction match, refraction not modeled

reading the engines

Every wave here was made by wind somewhere else, and the two engines worth tracking are nor'easters and tropical systems. The dial shows named storms by bearing and distance from Rye: a system parked in the E to S wedge, 300 to 1200 miles out, is the dream setup, sending long-period groundswell with none of the weather. The tail on each dot shows where the storm is headed; a system tracking away takes its swell chances with it.

The trains are swell events the model already sees: a rising-then-falling arc of energy. The signature tells you the engine: long-period from the E–S window reads tropical, mid-period from the NE quarter reads nor'easter (surf the back side), short-period means local windswell that dies with the wind. Direction decides which beaches eat: a SE train feeds the south-facing sand, a NE train feeds the reefs.

Live Conditions

Swell (model)

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Wind

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why wind decides

Offshore wind blows from land to sea and grooms waves clean. Onshore crumbles them into mush. For an east-facing NH beach, offshore means W, NW, or SW. Under about 5kn any direction is forgiven: glassy.

The classic NH pattern: a nor'easter blows onshore NE while it builds the swell, then the wind swings offshore NW as the storm departs. Surf the back side of the storm.

The summer sea breeze cycle. On almost every sunny day the land heats, air rises, and by late morning the wind swings onshore S to SE. Dawn is glassy and noon is chopped. Dawn patrol is thermodynamics: the land cools overnight, the breeze lies down, and the first hours are the clean ones.

Tide

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why tide runs this coast

New England swings 8 to 10 vertical feet per tide, among the biggest ranges in US surf. The same sandbar can be a wave at mid tide, dry at low, and drowned at high. Every spot has a stage where it works. Time your session to the tide, not to the swell peak.

Tide is also your current: tidal flow is strongest at mid-tide, when the most water is moving, and it concentrates at rivermouths like Ogunquit.

Buoy Ground Truth

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models guess, buoys measure

The forecast tiles are model output. The buoy is an instrument in the water measuring what is actually there. Before you drive, confirm the model against the buoy: if the model says 3ft @ 10s and the buoy shows 1ft @ 6s, the swell has not arrived yet.

The offshore buoy also reads swell hours before it reaches the beach. Energy at the buoy this morning becomes waves on the sand this afternoon.

Buoy-to-break translation is the core skill. The same 3ft @ 10s reading makes different surf at every beach; exposure, refraction, and sandbars all take a cut. The "faces at this spot" line is a starting multiplier. Your job over a season is to replace it with your own number for each spot. That calibration is what learning to forecast means.

reading swell

Height @ Period from Direction. Period, the seconds between waves, matters more than height. It is the energy signature: 6s and under is local windswell, weak and crumbly. 7 to 9s is a decent Gulf of Maine swell. 10s and up is real groundswell from a nor'easter or hurricane, and it is rare here because the Gulf is a small fetch pond guarded by Nova Scotia and Cape Cod.

Direction is where swell comes from. It has to fit this spot's swell window (see the legend below) or the energy slides past the break. Model caveat: Open-Meteo snaps your spot to a coarse open-water cell roughly 25km wide (printed in the tile). Treat it as offshore swell, not wave-face height on the sand; the buoy tile teaches the translation.

Instruments the spot dial and the tide clock

Spot dial · swell window vs right now

how to read this dial

The teal slice is the only set of directions this beach can catch waves from, measured in deep water before refraction bends them. The solid ink arrow is today's swell flying in from its compass origin. The dashed red arrow is today's wind. The dashed brass arc marks the wind origins that count as offshore here. Good day in one glance: ink arrow inside the teal slice, red arrow near the brass arc.

Tide clock · next 48 hours

Water

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Raw buoy line · learn to read it bare

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Model vs Buoy five days measured, seven days promised

─── model total sea at the buoy's own grid cell (teal line) · ● buoy measured sig height (ink dots) · like-for-like in variable AND location, so the gap is genuine model error · sig height = the average of the biggest third of waves, roughly what your eye calls the size · your spot's score uses its own nearer cell

7-Day Outlook tap a day for hour-by-hour

Time	Score	Swell	Dir	Wind	Tide

How the Score Works no black box

Every hour's score is four factors multiplied. They are the same four questions a forecaster asks, and the breakdown is shown in the Forecaster's Call above.

score = 10 × energy(faces^1.5 × period^1.5, windswell-capped, size-capped) × direction(deep-water window) × wind(speed, angle vs beach) × tide^0.7

energy · height and period weighted EQUALLY (each ^1.5), computed on the exposure-adjusted face estimate, because in the Gulf of Maine period is quality: under 7s the factor caps at 0.55 no matter the size, and each spot carries a heuristic max size it can hold (Sawyer's closes out over head-high; Higgins holds double-overhead).
direction · 1.0 inside the spot's DEEP-WATER approach window, fading to zero within 45° outside it. Refraction bends swell as it shoals and is not modeled: protected coves catch more than the window implies.
wind · offshore up to 15kn scores full marks; onshore decays fast with speed; under 5kn everything is forgiven.
tide · 1.0 in the spot's preferred stage, tapering outside; the displayed factor already includes the ^0.7 softening, so the four factors you see multiply exactly into the score. HEURISTIC Each spot's tide preference is local-knowledge consensus.
the composite · inherits every heuristic above it (exposure, size caps, tide bands, the 45° falloff). PART HEURISTIC Treat 6.4 as a hypothesis to check against the buoy and your eyes, never as a measurement.

Spot Legend

Prediction Journal predict, observe, correct

Make the call the night before. Grade it after. The gap between them is the lesson, and the heuristic exposure numbers are yours to correct as you learn.

Session date

Window

Expected size

Your call

Date	Spot	Window	Expected	Call	Buoy showed	Grade

How to Forecast the five-step method

1 · IS THERE ENERGY? Check swell height times period. The model says ···. Under about 2ft @ 7s the Gulf of Maine is a lake; 3ft @ 9s and up is game on. Confirm on the buoy before trusting it.
2 · IS IT POINTED AT YOUR SPOT? Swell direction is ···, and this spot wants ···. Energy outside the window never becomes a wave on your beach.
3 · WHAT IS THE WIND DOING, AND WHEN? Now: ···. Ask when the wind goes offshore, not whether. Dawn is statistically your friend.
4 · WHERE IS THE TIDE IN ITS NINE-FOOT SWING? Now: ···. This spot prefers ··· tide. The best swell on the wrong tide is still a skunking here.
5 · MAKE THE CALL. Best window in the next seven days: ···. Cross-check the buoy an hour before you drive.

Pattern Cards the four canonical Gulf of Maine setups

The departing nor'easter

Signature

Buoy climbing past 6ft @ 9–11s from the NE while the wind blows 25kn onshore. Pressure rising as the low exits east. Everything looks terrible in person.

The move

Wait. The day AFTER the peak, the wind swings W–NW offshore while 4–8ft of organized swell still runs. The reefs (Rye Rocks, Bass) wake up. This is the best surf of the year that isn't a hurricane.

The parked hurricane

Signature

A tropical system 300–400 miles offshore, stalled or slow-moving. The buoy shows long-period lines, 3–5ft @ 13–17s from the SE, while local wind stays light.

The move

Go, and pick a SE-open spot: Higgins holds the size, Gooch's and OOB focus it. Long-period sets arrive in widely spaced pulses, so wait through the lulls. August through October.

The summer sea breeze

Signature

Sunny July day, 2ft @ 7s of windswell. Glassy at 5am. By 11am the wind is 12kn onshore from the south and the ocean is chop.

The move

Dawn patrol or don't bother. The window is first light to mid-morning, and tide beats size: pick the spot whose preferred stage lands inside that window.

The winter windswell

Signature

A cold front just passed. Buoy reads 4ft @ 6–7s from the E, wind NW 15kn offshore, air 20°F, water 40°F.

The move

Short, punchy, disorganized but clean-faced. Beach breaks over reefs. It dies as fast as it came, often within one tide. 5/4 with boots, gloves, and hood; surf the warmest hours.

Glossary Gulf of Maine edition

Groundswell vs windswell: Groundswell (10s and longer) is made by distant storms and arrives organized and powerful. Windswell (7s and under) is made by local wind: disorganized, weak, gone when the wind stops. Most Gulf of Maine surf is windswell. The memorable days are nor'easter or hurricane groundswell.
Swell period: Seconds between wave crests, and the single most informative number in surf forecasting. It encodes how far away and how strong the source storm was, how fast the swell travels, and how much a wave will jack up on the sandbar.
Fetch: The distance of open water wind can blow across to make waves. The Gulf of Maine's fetch is short, capped by Nova Scotia to the east. That is why local swell is short-period, and why true groundswell must sneak in from the SE (hurricanes) or be built by a slow nor'easter parked in the Gulf.
The Cape Cod shadow: Big S and SSE Atlantic groundswell, the kind that lights up Rhode Island and New Jersey, gets blocked by Cape Cod before it reaches the Gulf of Maine. NH and Maine need swell with enough east or northeast in it to wrap into the Gulf. A firing pure-south swell below the Cape can mean a flat Jenness. Check the direction before you celebrate the height.
Nor'easter: The region's swell machine from fall through spring: a low tracking up the coast blowing NE wind onshore for days. The playbook is to watch it build (unrideable onshore chaos), then surf the clean NW-offshore day behind it.
Hurricane swell: August through October, tropical systems passing offshore send long-period SE groundswell with light local wind, the best combination of the year. The dream setup is a storm parked 300 to 400 miles offshore: all the swell, sometimes seven or eight straight days of it, none of the weather.
Offshore / onshore: Named for where the wind goes, not where it comes from. Offshore blows from the land out to sea and cleans the faces; onshore blows from the sea onto land and chops them up. Match wind to each spot's aspect, never to a regional rule of thumb. W and NW are offshore for the east-facing NH beaches, but south-facing Gooch's flips it: N and NE wind are offshore there, which is why Gooch's stays clean while a nor'easter blows out everything east-facing.
Tide swing & tidal current: Nine feet of vertical range, twice a day. It moves the shoreline hundreds of feet on flat beaches, switches seawall shorebreak on and off, and drives the strongest current you will feel: tidal flow at rivermouths and harbor mouths, peaking at mid-tide.