Largest wave ever surfed
A new world record was set this week for the largest wave ever surfed. On Tuesday, November 8, Hawaiian big wave rider Garrett McNamara caught a 90-foot (27 meter) wave during a tow-surfing session just offshore of the small fishing village of Nazare, Portugal. An undersea canyon 5000 meters deep runs very close to the shore, and the unique bathymetry is known to create unusually large waves when west-northwest swells affect the coast. On Tuesday, an approaching cold front extending southwards from a low pressure system centered just south of Iceland generated strong winds off the coast of Portugal, and a west-northwest swell of 8 meters (26′). The canyon generated three big waves in excess of 60 feet that day, and McNamara was able to catch the tallest, 90-foot wave. The previous record highest wave surfed was a 77-foot (23 meter) wave caught in 2008 at Cortes Bank off the coast of Southern California by Mike Parsons.

Video 1.Surfer Garrett McNamara rides a 90-foot wave off the coast of Portugal on November 8, 2011, setting a new world record for the largest wave ever riden.November 7 Tipton, Oklahoma tornado rated an EF-4
The powerful tornado that hit Tipton, Oklahoma on November 7 has been rated an EF-4 by the National Weather Service. The Tipton tornado hit two Oklahoma Mesonet stations and destroyed them; the Tipton mesonet site measured winds of 86.4 mph and the Fort Cobb site measured winds of 91.4 mph before destruction. The tornado was one of a family of six spawned that day by the parent supercell thunderstorm. The Tipton tornado is the first November EF-4 tornado in Oklahoma’s history, and one of only twenty EF-4 or stronger tornadoes observed in the U.S. since 1950, according to the Tornado History Project. There have been twelve December EF-4 tornadoes and two December EF-5 tornadoes observed in the U.S. since 1950. The confirmed tornado count for 2011 is 1543, putting this year in third place so far for most tornadoes, behind the 1692 tornadoes observed in 2004 and 1817 tornadoes in 2008. By the time the year ends, 2011 should wind up with 1600 – 1700 confirmed tornadoes.

Figure 2. Time series showing the weather at the Fort Cobb, OK mesonet station during passage of the November 7, 2011 Tipton tornado. A wind gust of 91.4 mph and pressure spike down to 946 mb occurred during the tornado’s passage. Image credit: NWS/Norman Oklahoma.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll be back Monday with a new post.

Jeff Masters

This is the Tipton-Snyder, OK tornado. This supercell produced multiple tornadoes over a couple of hours.

We saw two tornadoes this day and both were exciting! The one pictured here crossed the road in front of us less than 1/4 mile!

1,060 mile one day chase!