O'Neill Highland Open Webcast and Forecast

Forecast Update [Friday 25th]

The current swell looks to weaken slightly (the contest has already been called off for today in deteriorating conditions) before coming in stronger from the west later in saturday (by the evening) and on sunday, centred on westerly but with a wide directional spread that'll maybe push into a wider variety of spots. For early next week the northerly swell looks to develop but it's not super strong. Fingers crossed it's enough for something interesting and of course it can all change so watch this space...

Latest Forecast [Wednesday 23rd April]

A large low is currently covering a large part of the North Atlantic. The swell will build throughout the day with a reasonable peak of long period and plenty of shorter period waves in the mix for tomorrow. The problem for Thurso right now is this swell will arrive, initially, pretty much due west at best. We're not totally familiar with the setup locally but this sounds like conditions for more exposed spots but probably not for Thurso east.

This low looks set to continue to send westerly swell right the way through the weekend. As it tracks north it'll deliver more low energy waves in the mix but the main pulse should remain interesting enough for beaches working on the westerly.

Over the weekend the current model shows another weak low in the Atlantic joining with the larger system and moving north. The west swell looks set to continue and weaken a little but at the same time a system to the North West of Iceland kicks in and mixed with the weakening west swell comes a reasonable pulse from the due north. Obviously this longer range forecast is more liable to change but it starts to look really interesting for the start of next week. Fingers crossed...