14/12/2011

Record Wave Off Ireland - More Information Breaks

A record wave has been spotted off the coat of Ireland as the Atlantic storm continues its pass over the British Isles.

The record 20.4 metre wave was recorded by a Met Eireann weather buoy at 2pm on Tuesday December 14 and was a maximum individual wave height.

The Irish Sea buoy – known as the M4 - is from a new generation of weather buoys with the ability to measure maximum wave height. This new M4 has been on station since June 2011.

Also, at 1pm on Tuesday, a "significant wave height" of 14.7m was recorded at the M4, which was another record wave height at that location.

The Significant Wave Height is defined as the average height of the highest one-third of the waves and that is what our forecasts of wave height refer to.

In general, the highest wave of all will be about twice the Significant Wave Height.

The highest Significant Wave Height recorded by the Irish weather buoy network was 17.2 metres by the M6 buoy on 9th December 2007.

In time, it is hoped by Met Eireann that all buoys in the network will be changed to the new type making the maximum heights available on the publicly accessible website.

(DW)

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