Characteristics of storm waves off the Mediterranean coast of Israel

Abstract

A two-year series of directional wave measurement off the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Israel reveals an abundance of high storm waves. Some of these waves have significant height in excess of 5 meters and periods as long as 15 sec. The evolution of the storm waves is described and related to the growth and paths of the storm fronts in Mid-Mediterranean. Shorter-period waves are found to always lead the arrival of longer-period swell. This characteristic is explained by a short decay distance and/or a high migration velocity of the storm front. The scatter plot of significant wave height vs period for the recorded events of each storm describes an open-loop time sequence. The difference in period between that of the peak height event and the period of a fully arisen sea of the same height is found to be indicative of the true decay distance the waves have travelled.