Environment

Surf's up! 19-meter wave wipes out world record

Surf's up! 19-meter wave wipes out world record
The World Meteorological Organization has detected a record-breaking wave of 19 m (62.3 ft)
The World Meteorological Organization has detected a record-breaking wave of 19 m (62.3 ft)
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The World Meteorological Organization has detected a record-breaking wave of 19 m (62.3 ft)
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The World Meteorological Organization has detected a record-breaking wave of 19 m (62.3 ft)

A new world record for the highest wave has been recorded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In the freezing, turbulent waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between Iceland and the UK, an automated buoy detected a significant wave height of 19 m (62.3 ft).

The record-breaking wave rolled through the area at 6 am UTC on February 4, 2013, following a strong cold front that whipped up winds of 43.8 knots (50.4 mph, 81 km/h). It crashed over the previous record of 18.275 m (59.96 ft), which was detected in the same stretch of ocean in 2007.

"This is the first time we have ever measured a wave of 19 meters," says Wenjian Zhang, WMO Assistant Secretary-General. "It is a remarkable record. It highlights the importance of meteorological and ocean observations and forecasts to ensure the safety of the global maritime industry and to protect the lives of crew and passengers on busy shipping lanes."

The buoy that detected the wave is part of a network of moored and drifting buoys, called Marine Automatic Weather Stations, designed to observe and monitor weather patterns and help forecast potentially hazardous conditions. The 19-meter wave went into the record books as "the highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy".

That wording is deliberately careful, since the buoys are just one part of a wider observation network comprised of ships and satellites. And "significant wave height" is a metric designed to ignore the influence of one-off "rogue waves," which are hard to accurately measure. Wave height is defined as the distance between the highest point of one wave and the lowest point of the one behind it. Significant wave height is the average taken from the highest one-third of waves over a set amount of time, which is said to be closer to what an observer would see over 15 to 20 waves within 10 minutes or so.

"The new world record will be added to the official WMO archive of weather and climate extremes which is being constantly updated and expanded thanks to continued improvements in instrumentation, technology and analysis," says Randall Cerveny, WMO's Joint Rapporteur on World Records of Climate and Weather Extremes.

Hosted by Arizona State University, the WMO archive contains records relating to temperature, rainfall, hail, droughts and wind speeds, among others.

Source: World Meteorological Organization

9 comments
9 comments
stuartmitch
Breaking news???? It happened over 3 years ago!!!
FábioDuqueFrancisco
I don't get it. There's bigger waves out there (30 mt).
Kpar
Well, I'm glad they mentioned rogue waves, but I am still unclear as to why this wave is different...
AndrewTomer
see USS Ramapo - 112 ft. wave height recorded 17 Feb 1933
wiki
jd_dunerider
The key is "Significant wave height is the average taken from the highest one-third of waves over a set amount of time, which is said to be closer to what an observer would see over 15 to 20 waves within 10 minutes or so."
Yes there are bigger single waves, that's not what they are measuring.
MQ
So are 100 ft waves real or myth. (The science isn't settled.)
Lets get more waveriders (or free floating gps buoys) out there to see...
In science, nothing's real until you measure it, despite the fact that it (may) existed irrespective of the observation point. Just like a tree falling in the forest.
RobWeaver
Not true. It is the highest wave ever recorded by an automated buoy. There have been higher waves recorded by other sources. A simple Google search will prove it.
voliveira
Just check Nazare in Portugal were Garret McNamara and others break big wave surf rekords (more than 78 feet=24m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74pnrYPozcU
amazed W1
Do they record the wavelength at the same time? This gives the crucial characteristic of the probable steepness of the waves two "sides", and of the velocity, which both greatly affect anything travelling on the surface.