by BigB » November 2, 2012, 1:34 pm
I talked to Capt. Jimmie Hobaugh back in 1988 and he related to me how the waves were from the west-northwest the night the Fitz went down and that they would get reflected off the Canadian shoreline come back into the lake interfering with the waves from the west-northwest.
Marine meteorologist's when forecasting wave heights for a given fetch and wind speed use a "wave nomogram"
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/ ... wksht.html
So, using a given wind speed and fetch length, waves generally won't get any higher. But, and it's a big but waves can become higher given an unstable atmosphere, something that happens on the Great Lakes in the fall. This is a meteorological phenomena called "Momentum Transfer" where in an unstable atmosphere (where air above the marine boundary layer is colder then the lake.) This allows stronger winds above the marine boundary layer to mix down to the surface causing waves to become higher than would be expected.
Others have talked talked about rogue waves and their possible occurrence on the Great Lakes. That is a possibility, but we don't have direct observations as such. The time of year when you have the strongest storms is traditionally in November, but the buoys that provide measurement of such a possible phenomena such as rogue waves are removed for the winter.
Other areas of the world are known for occurrences of rogue waves, such as the Agulhas Current, in the Mozambique channel off eastern South Africa. There, a powerful, warm current flowing southward often times meets a storm system moving north can cause wave lengths to shorten and allowing waves to become steeper.
Paul Liu of the GLERL (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) has written a number of scientific papers on waves an rogue waves that people will find interesting..
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/about/pers/pr ... llpub.htmlI talked to Capt. Jimmie Hobaugh back in 1988 and he related to me how the waves were from the west-northwest the night the Fitz went down and that they would get reflected off the Canadian shoreline come back into the lake interfering with the waves from the west-northwest.
Marine meteorologist's when forecasting wave heights for a given fetch and wind speed use a "wave nomogram" http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/lessons/ocean_motion_wksht.html
So, using a given wind speed and fetch length, waves generally won't get any higher. But, and it's a big but waves can become higher given an unstable atmosphere, something that happens on the Great Lakes in the fall. This is a meteorological phenomena called "Momentum Transfer" where in an unstable atmosphere (where air above the marine boundary layer is colder then the lake.) This allows stronger winds above the marine boundary layer to mix down to the surface causing waves to become higher than would be expected.
Others have talked talked about rogue waves and their possible occurrence on the Great Lakes. That is a possibility, but we don't have direct observations as such. The time of year when you have the strongest storms is traditionally in November, but the buoys that provide measurement of such a possible phenomena such as rogue waves are removed for the winter.
Other areas of the world are known for occurrences of rogue waves, such as the Agulhas Current, in the Mozambique channel off eastern South Africa. There, a powerful, warm current flowing southward often times meets a storm system moving north can cause wave lengths to shorten and allowing waves to become steeper.
Paul Liu of the GLERL (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) has written a number of scientific papers on waves an rogue waves that people will find interesting..
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/about/pers/profiles/specs/liu_list_allpub.html