The coastal buoy situated opposite the Port of A Coruña, at Langosteria, reaches its historic maximum
Puertos del Estado buoys record waves up to 19.23 metres high on Galician coasts
18-01-2018 (Ministry of Public Works). During the storm that battered the coasts of Galicia and Cantabria in recent days, Puertos del Estado's coastal buoy located opposite the Port of A Coruña, at Langosteira, recorded maximum height values of 19.23 metres, which broke its historic record, previously set at 15.6 metres in 2017. In terms of historic values, the highest value (27.8 metres) was recorded by the Villano-Sisargas buoy during the storms of January 2014.
The maximum height is the highest value of the wave heights recorded during an approximate time interval of half an hour.
This storm was caused by a large depression situated between Greenland and Iceland, generating strong winds in the northern Atlantic, which also caused a groundswell that reached coasts in northwest Spain.
The same buoy at Langosteira also recorded its highest significant wave height values since it came into operation in 2013. The record was reached at 7pm on 17 January, reaching a significant wave height of 12.37 metres, with swell remaining above 6 metres throughout the day. The values registered by this coastal buoy were higher than those obtained during the storm by the buoys in the deep sea network, which are located at greater depths and in open waters.
The nearest buoy (Villano-Sisargas) in the deep sea network recorded a significant wave height of 9.61 metres at the same time as the buoy at Langosteira was recording its historic maximum. All other buoys operating in the area reached 9.26 metres in Bilbao-Vizcaya and 8.91 metres in Cabo Silleiro.
The standalone record of Puertos del Estado buoys is held by the Bilbao-Vizcaya buoy, which measured a significant wave height of 13.7 metres during the extra-tropical cyclone Klaus in January 2009, followed by the Villano-Sisargas buoy's measurement of 13.5 metres obtained at the same time.
The significant wave height is one of the most representative parameters of swell. It represents the height of the waves that an experienced observer would be able to see with the naked eye at the measurement point (not from the coast), which is equivalent to the mean height of the highest third of waves recorded during an approximate time interval of half an hour.
