- window
- Early weekday morning before the crowds and afternoon breeze; best season is summer (May–Sep) when Atlantic swell is smallest.
- tide
- Mid-to-high tide covers the sharp rocks at the entry; at low tide the platform is slippery with algae.
- shelter
- The complex's lava platform and breakwaters knock down NW swell; water inside the pools is calm, but the open ocean just beyond is fully exposed to N/NW.
- conditions
- Calm days only: N/NW swell under ~0.8–1 m and light wind. When swell builds, waves wash over the platform — stay out.
- hazard
- The dominant danger is entry/exit over the lava platform: a surging wave throws you onto sharp rock and can trap you in the pool. Outside the pools the ocean has no shelter at all.
- access
- Direct off the EN101 in town, large car park at the complex, steps and ramps straight to the water; changing rooms, shower, lifeguard in bathing season.
Porto Moniz spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
Today — sit it out — wave, wind and noticeable surge.
Sources: IPMA · buoys · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 11:46
Sources & confidence
- Sources
- IPMA · NDBC & IH buoys · Copernicus Marine · Sentinel-2
- Method
- spearo sea-state engine: 6-model consensus + 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
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