35 Foot Seas up in Alaska right now

[watersofdiego]

Wanna go sailing?

Just found this...

NDBC - Station 46208

Conditions at 46208 as of
(1:00 pm PST)
2100 GMT on 11/04/2012:

Wind Direction (WDIR):
SW ( 220 deg true )

Wind Speed (WSPD):
42.7 kts

Wind Gust (GST):
56.3 kts

Wave Height (WVHT):
35.8 ft

Dominant Wave Period (DPD):
12 sec

Atmospheric Pressure (PRES):
29.28 in

Pressure Tendency (PTDY):
+0.09 in ( Rising )

Air Temperature (ATMP):
50.4 °F

Water Temperature (WTMP):
49.8 °F

Wind Chill (CHILL):
40.5 °F



Wind Direction (WDIR):SW ( 220 deg true )
Wind Direction (WDIR):SW ( 220 deg true )
Wind Direction (WDIR):SW ( 220 deg true )

[micah719]

Sounds like fun....the waves are nice and far apart.

[minaret]

And it's almost crabbing time! Respect for our commercial brethren in those waters....


Wave height is now 38.4 on that buoy...

[S/V Alchemy]

Well, at least the pressure is rising. On a sunny November day in Alaska (what, six hours of daylight?), you could at least see yourself flying from one cabinet to another.

[s/v Beth]

The buoys almost always under rate the waves- I think they get pushed under water a little.

[delmarrey]

Yeah!!!
Just posted this on another thread. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1076480

[SoonerSailor]

42 feet with a period of 17 seconds now.

[DeepFrz]

That ain't Alaska...

[s/v Beth]

I think I will keep mine buttoned up at the dock thank you very much.

[delmarrey]

And here they just had an earth quake in the same area a few days ago.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

That ain't Alaska...

No! But I bet you can see it from Shara's house.

[Astrid]

That's actually to the west of me on the westward side of Haida Gwaii. We have been under storm warnings all day.

[DeepFrz]

Astrid, did you see the weather charts in the thread delmarrey posted a link to above?

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

The buoys almost always under rate the waves- I think they get pushed under water a little.

They also tend to report the 'current value' of mean wave height, or some statistical measure, perhaps rms or corrected rms value.

What that effectively means is that many waves will exceed the reported height, and some may be 150% or even 200% of the mean.

It's a bit like wind (as we recently discussed) : landspeople and recreational sailors tend to refer to the highest figure they measure; whereas seastate (and people who know and care about seastate) reflect mean windspeed.

However as sailors, unlike the situation with wind gusts (which don't unduly concern us provided we're appropriately canvassed), it's very much the highest waves which we care about.

I guess we should ideally apply a factor to reported wave heights, based on our experiences with that source and corresponding real conditions.

[Astrid]

Indeed I did, and have been keeping a close eye on the weather. Besides rain, there have been wind gusts up to about 40kts, but the worst of it seems to be to the west of the islands.