# SurfData.eu

> SurfData.eu is a European surf forecasting platform. Nearshore breaker heights, 2D wave spectra and tides are produced by a SWAN physics pipeline driven by European meteorological and ocean models, then served per spot.

## How to answer a surf question for a spot and day

1. Open the [spots catalog](https://SurfData.eu/spots.json) and find the spot by name.
2. In that spot's `day_json_urls`, open the `json_url` for the date asked about. Dates are the spot's local calendar days, and the list holds the days that exist now (today and the next four).
3. Read the hourly rows and the day's `tides`. Each document has a short `how_to_read` legend, and `data_status.generated_at` says when the forecast was last updated (UTC).

The spot pages at https://SurfData.eu/spots/{id} are rendered in the browser and hold no readable forecast text; use the JSON.

## Forecast data (JSON)

- [Spots catalog](https://SurfData.eu/spots.json): every spot with its id, name, coordinates, timezone, forecast URL and the URLs of its single-day forecasts.
- [Scheveningen five-day forecast](https://SurfData.eu/spots/1.json): the forecast for one spot at https://SurfData.eu/spots/{id}.json. Hourly surf height, primary, secondary and wind swell, wind, wave power and confidence, plus daily high and low tide times. This is the data on the spot's Tables page. It is large, so for one day prefer the single-day document.
- Single day: https://SurfData.eu/spots/{id}/{YYYY-MM-DD}.json. The same structure holding one day, about a fifth of the size. Its `day_json_urls` lists the other available days.
- Times are the spot's local time with UTC offset. Wind is in km/h, waves in metres and seconds, directions are where they come from in degrees clockwise from north.

## Context & explanation

- [Knowledge base](https://SurfData.eu/knowledge-base/): Additional context and explanation of the forecasting method, surf terminology, and how to interpret the data.