Category: Ocean and climate news

The storm Klaus hit Spain and France on Saturday, January 24 2009, causing several casualties and many damages.

Before landing, the storm induced significant wave heights of more than 10 m off Spain coasts.  The buoy at Cape Ferret (at the mouth of the Arcachon Bay, in Southwest France) measured 11.8 m of significant wave height. The area of maximum significant wave heights was not far from there, so we can estimate the  highest significant wave heights at about 12-13 m during this storm. Significant wave height is a variable used in marine meteorology, that matches the mean height of the third of the highest waves. However, a wave over a hundred reaches one and a half this value, and some can even reach twice this. Heights once at the coast are difficult to predict, since they depend on submarine reliefs.