Spectral Evolution and Wave Age Analysis of an Exceptional Storm Off the Mediterranean Spanish Coast

Abstract

A severe storm arose in the North-western Mediterranean during November 2001, causing severe damage to the coast (including loss of beaches, structural damage to harbours and also loss of human life). This paper focuses on the storm description and the corresponding spectral analysis of buoy data recorded during the storm and wind data collected from meteorological stations along the Spanish coast. Additionally it shows wave hindcast for the event and the implications of the spectral characteristics for wind wave prediction in the Mediterranean. The buoys recorded wave heights (Hs) of up to 6 m and periods (Tz) of 10 s. The direction (θp) was recorded as mainly easterly during the storm peaks and north-westerly during calm conditions. The changes of wave-age during the development of the storm have not shown correlation with wave Hs prediction errors. The recorded directional spectra present bimodal features in frequency and direction related to wind variability. The directional spectrum predicted did not reproduced such bimodal features. It is suggested to consider the bimodal characteristics and/or spectral width of recorded data for a better wave-age description in the Catalan coast.