Wave Height

23 December 2016 – Fifty foot waves at K5

00 UTCUTC Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently used prime meridian) and is not adjusted for daylight saving time. It is effectively a successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). – 24 Dec 2016

On 20 UTC on the 23 December 2016, instrumental wave heights reported by the automatic weather buoy [MAWS] K5 out in the North Atlantic at 59.1° north and 11.7° west were as high as 15.4 metres or just over 50 feet. Wave heights have since dropped to around 30 feet, before increasing again tomorrow as storm Conor passed close by to the north. Looking at the midnight chart I should imagine waves may have been considerably higher than this a little further north judging by the strength of the gradient. Sadly, since I wrote the original article the UKMOUKMO The Meteorological Office is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy now suppress wave height data in their hourly weather buoy observations, so much for progress.

1 Comment / August 15, 2023

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7M waves in the North Sea

Spare a thought for those people working on the rigs in the North Sea tonight. The severe gale force southeasterly has whipped waves of 7 M in height in the last few days, with gusts well in excess of hurricane force 12 thrown in for good measure.