Featured Image Credit: peacewave-station.com
By Alice Morris
Surf’s up… and up…and up!
On December 13th, the World Meteorological Organization announced a new world record for the tallest wave ever measured by a buoy.
The colossal 62.3-foot (19-meter) wave was recorded in February 2013 after a powerful cold front passed through the North Atlantic, generating 50 mph winds off Scotland’s west coast.
It towers above the previous record set by a 59.96-foot wave in December 2007.
The World Meteorological Organization Assistant Secretary-General Wenjian Zhang described the wave as “remarkable” in the public press release.
“This is the first time we have ever measured a wave of nineteen meters,” said Zhang. “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 buoy shipping lanes.”
An automated buoy known as K5 recoded the wave between Iceland and the U.K. K5 is part of a network of buoys set up by the U.K. Met Office’s Marine Automatic Weather Stations.
The wave is technically classified as having the “highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy.”
According to the WMO, significant wave height is defined as the “average of the highest one-third of waves measured by an instrument,” while simple wave height is the distance from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next.
This means that even though another buoy recorded a massive 23.4-meter wave in 2014, it had a smaller significant wave height overall and didn’t surpass the record-breaking wave.
Despite their impressive sizes, both of these waves pale in comparison to a 95-foot (29 meter) wave spotted by a ship in the North Atlantic in 2002.
They’re also not as big as the largest wave ever surfed. That title belongs to a 78-foot curl that Garrett McNamara surfed in Nazaré, Portugal back in 2011.