63-Foot Waves off United Kingdom; High Winds in Europe
By
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor
Published Dec 10, 2014 11:15 AM EDT
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Updated Dec 16, 2014 12:50 PM EDT
UPDATE 12/11: A 63-foot wave was estimated by satellite last night:
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UPDATE 12/10: A 52-foot wave was recorded by a buoy off the coast overnight:
The hashtag "#weatherbomb" (coined by their newspapers) is the #1 Twitter Trend in the United Kingdom this morning, and the storm trends are dominating on TrendsMap.com:
On shore, the waves are doing damage:
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ORIGINAL BLOG: A very deep storm in the North Atlantic, not far from a strong high pressure system, will cause incredible wave heights midweek (I've literally never seen a forecast model predict waves this high). The storm is bound for Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe and will cause high winds there.
Our map from the NOAA WaveWatch III model is shown above. Notice that the waves are literally off the chart -- our color scheme goes only to 48 feet. Other forecasts include 63 feet from the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center and 82 feet from a high-res local forecast model (see below - that could be overestimated because the model doesn't understand the surrounding weather situation, or it could be more accurate because it has a higher resolution). Facebook Fan Ian C. says "loads of surfers apparently have been arriving this weekend. All to go to a place called Mullaghmore in Sligo, renowned for it massive waves ."
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Our forecast wind map is shown below; for more information and updates forecasts, read our news story.
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