Estimating storm‐wave conditions in San Francisco Bay

Abstract

Wave action is usually associated with navigation operations on the open sea and with construction problems relating to shore and beach protection. However, there are many problems which involve waves generated by wind on relatively small bodies of water. Some of these problems include small craft anchorages, berthing and docking operations, and erosion by wave action of the upstream face of dams at reservoirs.In San Francisco Bay, fairly strong winds blow generally in the direction of the long axis of the Bay during storms, thus acting on the water over distances of the order of 30 miles. This distance, hereinafter called the fetch, is sufficient to generate waves of the order of eight or more feet in height. In the region opposite the Golden Gate, wave conditions may be further complicated by ground swell entering the Bay from the open sea. The following discussion will be confined to wind waves generated by storm winds in San Francisco Bay. The method of analysis is applicable to other bodies of water, large or small. In fact, the method is an adaptation of wave‐forecasting procedures developed during the last three years, largely as the result of research for the Bureau of Ships and the Hydrographic Office, United States Navy Department, by H. U. Sverdrup and Walter Munk of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, by the Department of Engineering, University of California, and by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Much useful work has also been contributed by the Admiralty Research Laboratory and other British Army and Navy organizations.