A wave hindcast in the Western Mediterranean Sea is carried out in order to assess the performance of three atmospheric models in providing the forcing for a third generation wave model. The wind models have been used as forcing fields for the generation of waves and the resulting significant wave height time history compared with four buoys around the Balearic Islands. Two different wave-model grid resolutions are used to get the wave field in the entire Mediterranean and around the Balearic Islands. The present application was performed for three months: November 2008 and for July and August 2009. Results indicate that all data sources provide good forcing for operational wave forecast at large scales (wind forecast with grid resolution of 30 and 25km). Near the coast or at the lee of islands, resolving small scale topographical features result in a better forecast of wave fields. However, for the area studied, the atmospheric model that better represents summer and winter conditions is hourly WRF at 1.5km resolution.