UN weather agency recorded 62ft wave in February 2013 in the North Atlantic, in a remote spot between Great Britain and Iceland after a strong cold front

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A towering 19-meter (62.3ft) wave in the North Atlantic has set a world record as the highest ever measured by a buoy, according to the UN’s weather agency.

An automated buoy measured the wave at a remote spot between Great Britain and Iceland on 4 February 2013 at 6.00 GMT, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.



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Taller than a six-storey building, the huge wave occurred after a “very strong cold front” passed through the area, with winds of up to 43.8 knots (50.4mph).



“This is the first time we have ever measured a wave of 19 meters. It is a remarkable record,” the WMO assistant secretary general, Wenjian Zhang, said in the statement.



Classified as “the highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy” by the WMO Commission for Climatology’s Extremes Evaluation Committee, the wave crushed the previous record of 18.275 meters (59.96ft), measured in December 2007 in the North Atlantic.



Wave height is defined as the distance from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next; significant wave height means the average of the highest one-third of waves measured by an instrument.



The North Atlantic, between the Grand Banks underwater plateau off Canada, the south of Iceland and the west of Great Britain, is often the setting for gigantic waves, thanks to wind patterns which lead to “intense extra-tropical storms” sometimes called “bombs”, the WMO said.

The new wave height has been added to the WMO’s Global Weather & Climate Extremes Archive, which tracks such milestones. The highest significant wave height measured by a ship observation occurred in the North Atlantic in February of 2000, and measured 29.05 meters (95.03 ft), according to the archive.

In the release, Dr Zhang emphasized that, though there have been strides in satellite technology, “the sustained observations and data records from moored and drifting buoys and ships still play a major role” in helping to understand the interaction between weather and ocean.



Automated buoys relay data on swells, sea current and temperatures for scientists, seafarers and climate researchers.

• This article was amended on 13 December 2016 to correct the height of a double-decker bus. It is 4.4m, not 15m.</s>The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations' weather agency, announced Tuesday it had measured a massive wave that crushed the record for the tallest in history. The wave was 62.3 feet, or 19 meters, tall. For context, that equates to about six stories.

The massive wave was measured by a buoy in the North Atlantic in 2013. The height is defined as the distance from the crest — or top — of one wave to the trough — or bottom — of the other. A commission of experts for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially classified the record-breaker as "the highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy." A significant wave is defined as "the average of the highest one-third of waves measured by an instrument," which means the record-breaker was actually a series of waves.

The wave, which took place south of Iceland and North of the United Kingdom, flew past the previous record set in 2007 of 59.96 feet, also measured in the North Atlantic, a hotbed for massive waves.

"This is the first time we have ever measured a wave of 19 meters. It is a remarkable record," said WMO Assistant Secretary-General Wenjian Zhang in a statement. "It highlights the importance of meteorological and ocean observations and forecasts to ensure the safety of the global maritime industry and to protect the lives of crew and passengers on busy shipping lanes."

It's, of course, unlikely anyone is surfing this sort of wave anytime soon. But for comparison's sake, it makes a number of the world's tallest waves look tiny. The Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, which Smithsonian Magazine called "the most dangerous surf wave" in the world rises up to about 30 feet.

Other one-off waves, however, have actually reportedly been taller than the 60-foot series measured by the buoy in the North Atlantic. An earthquake caused in 1958 in Alaska’s Lituya Bay caused a tsunami that led to wave that reached 100 feet in height, according to the Smithsonian. Tsunamis are different from wind-blown waves, however, since they are much longer and more destructive.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms a 19-meter wave (62.4 feet) recorded on 4 February 2013 in the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom is the largest ever on record.