When Do Ocean Waves Become 'Significant'?

A Closer Look at Wave Forecasts

Anyone who has spent time on a vessel, large or small, can probably recall an encounter with significant waves. Of course, the size of wave that someone considers to be 'significant' is very subjective and dependent on the size of the vessel on which that person's encounter took place.

Ocean Waves

Rules of Thumb
(Meteorological-N Hemisphere)

Looking at the wind, the low is on your right (Buys Ballot’s Law).
If the wind direction doesn’t change as the pressure drops, the storm is coming straight at you.
If the wind veers (CW variation) the storm is passing west of you.
If the wind backs (CCW variation) the storm is passing east of you.

Read more...

Posted by Fred Dobson

Tides, Weather, Webcams

Some Useful Links

TIDES AND CURRENTS

Tide Chart for Victoria (DFO)

Tide Chart for Esquimalt (DFO)

Tide & Current Tillicum Bridge

Tide & Current for Trial Island

WEATHER

Public Weather Victoria (5 Day)

Marine Actuals for Esquimalt

Marine Weather for Haro Strait

Marine Forecast for BC Coast

BC Lighthouse Reports

Sunrise - Sunset Table

Big Wave Dave

GOES West Satellite Images

SSEC Data Center (Live Satellite Images)

River Height Hydrometric Data (Environment Canada)

WEBCAMS

Royal BC Museum Harbour Cam

Nanaimo Harbour Webcam

Dallas Road

	48%	Canada (25233)
	23%	United States (12192)
	3%	Russian Federation (1456)
	1%	Netherlands (703)
	1%	Ukraine (703)
	1%	United Kingdom (686)
	1%	Germany (532)
	<1%	France (424)
	<1%	Australia (382)
	<1%	New Zealand (348)

Paddling Environment

When Do Ocean Waves Become 'Significant'?

A Closer Look at Wave Forecasts

Ocean Waves

Tides, Weather, Webcams

Create RSS Feed

Someone once said...

Visitors by Country