Mattinata · Italy

5.4

wave 0.3 m

visibility5m

Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.

Sources: MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 03:48

Sources & confidence

Sources: MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2
Method: spearo sea-state engine: consensus of up to 6 models + satellite clarity (ZSD) + buoy-bias checks
Freshness: Re-read every hour, per coast

Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine · How it works →

The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.

How we score the water

Our own model

Our own forecast engine — not a third-party widget. It weighs these water factors into one go-or-stay verdict for this coast; the 0–10 dial is that verdict, read out as a number.

Swell & wave memory: Height, period and direction of the swell, plus the wake of recent storms — an old storm still stirs the water, and the engine remembers.
Wind & gusts: Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
Tide phase: Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
Water temperature: Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
Currents & outflow: Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
Rain runoff & air clarity: Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
Coast shape & exposure: How the coast faces the swell — a sheltered cove keeps the water clean; an exposed, head-on point takes a penalty.

Safety gates

Thunderstorm forecast — an instant red, no exceptions.
An official warning (MeteoAlarm / IPMA) — yellow, or red for the higher ranks.
Missing input data — a would-be green is capped to yellow rather than overstated.
Strong disagreement between forecast models — a green day is pulled back to yellow.
Night hours — where night spearfishing is banned by law the window is forced red; where it is legal (Australia outside NSW, New Zealand, South Africa) it is capped at yellow, never green.

It all folds into a single 0–10 score and one verdict: go or stay.

A forecast, not a guarantee — the sea has the last word.

Where to get in, where to hunt

Entry points with coordinates

Seabed relief — promising ground

This verdict — in your pocket. Open the app for the week's window.

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Where to get in
off the rocks.

Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.

Open the seafloor map

Baia delle Zagare / faraglioniMattinata

borderline

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: The orders of the Capitaneria responsible for Mattinata can add seasonal prohibitions, and they outrank the general rule. On a shore oriented at 106° the usable light ends before the legal hour, which stays the hour of the sun. Note the hour you will come out before you get in: from 40 m of shore the way back always looks shorter than it is. The bathing season narrows the options: out of season the stretch is whole again.
tide: Swell from the east moves more water in ten minutes than the tide moves in six hours. The level counts for little here: what counts is how much sea has gone through in the days before. The way back, 200 m to the five-metre band, is decided beforehand and not on the way. At Mattinata the level changes little, but the current towards the east can be noticeable in the channels.
shelter: In Levante the detached rocks break the swell but hand it back confused, and that crossed sea tires you more than a clean wave. The shore in front of the mark faces east, about 106°, so everything arriving from that sector gets in unobstructed. On this coast yesterday's blow weighs more than today's forecast. Better half an hour on the right part of the coast than three hours on the wrong one.

Look at the water
right now.

Check the cam BEFORE you leave. Foam, brown/green murk, or waves washing the entry rocks = No-go. At night/in fog the cam is useless — treat it as «unknown», NOT «green».

connecting to the stream…

● LIVE↗

Vieste › North: San Lorenzo - Adriatic SeaWindy webcam (Vieste › North: San Lorenzo - Adriatic Sea) — official webcams.windy.com player, plays inline. Read the water and surf before you go.camera: windy ↗Webcams provided by windy.com - add new webcam

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now

European seabass
<4 m · — · dawn/dusk
min. 25 cm · legal target
Gilthead seabream
1–4 m · over sand/weed · dawn
min. 20 cm · legal target
White seabream
1–5 m · in the surf on the reef · dawn
min. 23 cm · legal target
Two-banded seabream
1–8 m · — · dawn
min. 18 cm · legal target
Sharpsnout seabream
2–10 m · — · dawn
min. 18 cm · legal target
Annular seabream
0–5 m · — · daytime
min. 12 cm · legal target
Common dentex
min. 15 cm · Sardinia 30 cm · legal target
Red porgy

VignanoticaMattinata

borderline

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: In doubt, the order in force at Mattinata is asked of the Capitaneria and not of the neighbour in the car park. Before the timing comes the compulsory declaration to MASAF: it is free, but without it you are not in order. The last stretch, the 260 m out to ten metres of water, is the one you will swim tired: put it in the day's arithmetic. Plan the way back while the light is still good: coming out over rock in the dark is another thing entirely.
tide: The current you will find towards the east will nearly always be wind-driven and not tidal. At Mattinata nobody plans an outing around the tide, and they are right not to. With Levante strengthening the inshore current picks up before the swell does. The inshore current is read off your float, not off the table.
shelter: The wall absorbs nothing: what reaches it comes back, and under the rock you get return waves no forecast ever mentions. The exposure measured on the coastline is 107°, that is full east: in Levante there is no shelter here, in Ponente the water flattens. The strip between the shore and the 5 m contour, about 230 m here, is the first to churn and the last to clear. If the swell starts working inside the 230 m of coastal strip, the session is over.
conditions: The 10 m contour runs about 260 m from the shore and is the practical reference for this entry. On flat, shallow ground it is the structure that counts and not the depth. The best water nearly always arrives from offshore on a light Ponente. At Mattinata the good days are few and have to be taken when they come.
hazard: On the shoreline at Mattinata the same national rules apply without discounts: breath-hold, daylight, marker in sight. Inside caves and arches the water pushes and sucks: you do not go in alone. At 40 m from the shore no emergency sorts itself out: come out at the first sign. Keep in mind the 40 m that separate you from the coast when you decide on the last descent.
access: With the shore 40 m away and five metres of water at 230 m, the band to cross is a short one. Off a high wall the exit is a single point: remember that before you go any distance. With Levante strengthening the exit is brought forward, not discussed. At Mattinata the return is planned on the afternoon swell, not on the morning one.

Sheer white cliff in clear water; sea bass, sea bream. Great visibility, Gargano standard.

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