40-Foot Waves From Hurricane Bill!

When Hurricane Bill passed over Buoy #41044 early this morning, he triggered waves nearly waves 38.8 feet high, and winds gusting to 80 knots (note that there were a couple missing observations near the highest wave ob - buoys have trouble measuring high waves, and one wonders what happens to wind gusts if they are in a trough at the time of observation). Here's what the satellite picture looked like at Bill's nearest:

And here are the graphs from the buoy:

The WaveWatch computer forecast model from this morning predicts bill will continue to have waves of 40-44 feet over the next couple days, which could bring waves of over 12 feet to the outer banks of North Carolina and Northeast coast, with heights reaching perhaps over 30 feet as Bill makes landfall on, or closely approaches the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Of course, any deviation from the projected track (and we're still 4 days out here, folks) could bring higher (or lower) waves to the coast. Keep an eye on AccuWeather.com for the latest news on Hurricane Bill.