Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Donegal Coast Records Highest Ever Wave as Growlers Reach 80–Feet

29th January 2014
Donegal Coast Records Highest Ever Wave as Growlers Reach 80–Feet

#wave – A new maximum wave height measuring nearly 80–feet (23 metres) has been recorded in weekend storms off the coast of Ireland.

Monster waves the height of five double deck buses occurred during last weekend's ferocious storms off the coast of Donegal, the worst for 30 years, according to Donegal news sources.

The M4 weather buoy, located off the Northwest coast, recorded a new maximum individual wave height of 23.4 metres at 15.00 on Sunday 26th January 2014 during the weekend storm that prompted an orange alert by the Coast Guard.

The new wave measurement easily surpasses the previous record of 20.4 metres at the same location in December 2011, according to Met Eireann.

The M4 buoy is one of a new generation of weather buoys with the ability to measure maximum wave height as well as the more usual Significant Wave Height.

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.

There was also a record for maximum significant wave height for the M4 buoy of 15.3m at the same time, with the previous record being 14.7m. The all-time record for Significant Wave Height still rests with the M6 buoy of 17.2m.

more from Met Eireann on this story here

Published in Weather
Afloat.ie Team

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button