National Safe Boating Week Begins Today, Seas Will Be 3 To 5 feet Offshore
By National Weather Service // May 16, 2015
A LOOK AT WAVE HEIGHTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – The weather out on the open Atlantic will be a little more favorable for boating this weekend, though conditions will remain a little choppy.
Onshore flow will remain around 15 knots with seas 3 to 5 feet.
The seas forecast and buoy observations in reported in terms of “Significant Wave Height,” which is the average heights of the highest one-third of all waves.
But not all waves will fall in this range. About one of every ten waves will be greater than 5 feet; and one in every 1,000 waves will be greater than 7 feet.
As a general rule, the largest individual wave one may encounter is approximately twice as high as the Significant Wave Height.
Wave periods in the forecast are expressed in terms of the “Dominant Wave Period,” which is the period with the most energy, or the period at which we can expect the highest waves to arrive.
Generally shorter periods will bring choppy and rough boating conditions, especially for smaller boats.
CLICK HERE for the boating forecast for East Central Florida.
