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Rogue Waves
Fri Oct 10, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton. Today on the Weather Notebook, Robin White reports on a deadly sea
phenomenon: the rogue wave.
Waves are caused by wind pushing across the surface of the sea. A sustained breeze will create
wave "trains" that sometimes travel thousands of miles. Neville Koop of Weather News
International says you can learn a lot about waves just by watching them crash on the beach.
Koop: If you study them ... closely you see that there's variations. Four to five waves might
come to the beach five seconds apart but the next one comes three seconds later and it's part
of a different wave train.
When you're at sea, wave trains coming from several directions - perhaps from different storms
- can sometimes pile on top of each other and cause a rogue wave. One of the places where
rogue waves are most common is off the east coast of South Africa. The warm Agulhas current
flows west and meets winds going in the opposite direction. Add to that waves coming from two
different oceans and you've got a trouble spot for rogue waves.
Koop: If you get a breaking wave out at sea it's like surfing. It can dump millions of tons
of water very quickly onto the ship and if your hulls are not watertight then suddenly you're
in danger and it can happen instantly.
Koop says rogue waves can smash the bridge or push containers off a vessel. In 2001 a ferry
sank off the coast of Madagascar when it was swamped by a rogue wave. 19 people lost their
lives.
Robin White brought us these shipping stories from San Francisco. The Weather Notebook is,
supported by The National Science Foundation, and Subaru, Driven by What's Inside.
Today's Links
\"Rogue Wave\" theory for ship disaster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/england/1675801.stm
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