Hurricane Ivan breaking records
Friday, October 22, 2004
After striking Grand Cayman, Hurricane Ivan has hit the record books yet
again as it produced a 52-foot wave in the Gulf of Mexico, the highest wave
reported during a hurricane, according to records from NOAA’s National Data Buoy
Center. The buoy, station 42040, was located about 75 miles south-southwest of
Dauphin Island, when it reported the 52- foot wave at 6:50 p.m. CT on September
15, three days after it left the Cayman islands and just before it crossed the
Alabama coast just west of Gulf Shores as a category 3 hurricane.
A spokesperson for the centre said, “Ivan undoubtedly produced unmeasured
waves higher than 52 feet. Wave heights measured by buoys are the average of the
highest third of the waves sampled during a 20-minute period. The single highest
wave is typically 50 to 80 percent higher. Also, Ivan’s eye passed east of the
buoy, keeping the highest waves and winds to the east. Sustained winds at the
buoy reached only 63 mph with gusts to 85 mph”.
The spokesperson suggested that as Ivan passed the Cayman Islands waves well
in excess of the 52 feet recorded would have occurred.
Ivan’s towering recorded wave exceeds those measured in other infamous
storms. In 1969, Hurricane Camille produced a 44-foot wave by an oil rig near
the storm’s center.
Only two other buoy reports exceed the 52-foot mark set by Ivan, both of
which occurred in the North Pacific where winter storms are larger than
hurricanes and winds blowing across a longer distance create larger waves. The
highest wave ever reported by an NDBC buoy was 55 feet and was measured south of
Alaska’s Aleutian Islands in 1991.
Back...
| 
