The largest recorded wave was observed 250km west of Scotland by a team of British scientists on board the Discovery
Sir, Weather Eye (Feb 12) had an interesting reminder of the enormous wave experienced by the Ramapo in 1933. However, the largest recorded wave was in fact observed 250km west of Scotland by a team of British scientists on board the Royal Research Ship Discovery in February 2000.
During that ill-fated research cruise the shipborne wave recorder measured 23 individual waves that exceeded 20m in height (peak to trough), with the largest being 29.1m tall. Unlike the 2004 Hurricane Ivan waves, the 2000 waves were generated by fairly usual wind speeds (21 m/s, or severe storm force) and a long