Winter Wave Heights

Waves pound Chesil Beach in Dorset during the winter of 2013/14(Tim Poate/University of Plymouth)

A new study shows that winter wave heights in Western Europe have increased by 1.7m over the last 70 years. Larger waves, and more frequent extreme winter storms are the primary factors affecting coastal erosion.

The full study – Increased winter-mean wave height, variability and periodicity in the North-East Atlantic over 1949-2017 by Castelle, Dodet, Masselink and Scott – has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, doi: 10.1002/2017GL076884.