Weather and Wave conditions in the U.K.

pathalla · 27 January 2006, 01:39

New to this forum and and Across the pond (Yank) in the Great lakes, I have been enjoying the posts and pictures of the boats, lots of small inflatables over here, not very many ribs. I was just wondering generally what sea conditions are like most of the time around England, How temperate it is for you during the summer months? Gentleman, You use your boats much later in the season than we do over here, everything shuts down in the middle of November, most everyone hauls their boats a month sooner. Our wave conditions average 2 to 4 feet for the most part on Lake Erie, it can and does get a lot rougher, 6 to 8 foot waves are fairly common, and it can be a lot worse in the fall (gales of November) plus the fresh water has a bad habit of freezing when it gets colder, puts a clamp on any boating plans one might have when that happens. I would like to extend an invitation to any of you who for whatever reason might find themselves in the States, if you make it to Ohio, I'd be happy to get you out on a rib on the Great Lakes, show you around, during the "Non freeze" months of course. Pat

codprawn · 27 January 2006, 05:22

Being a Yank will have to excuse your mistake - Britain is made up of more than just England!!! Britain is an island - England most certainly isn't!!! In fact RIBs were probably invented at Atlantic college on the Welsh coast.

Britain has an incredibly long coastline for it's size - believe it or not actually longer than mainland USA!!! There is nowhere in Britain more than 70 miles from the sea.

As to sea conditions they can get pretty grim - especially on the West Coast. Britain is surrounded by very shallow water - that combined with Westerlies coming in straight off the Atlantic can produce some very nasty seas.

Also the Bristol Channel is cursed by some of the biggest tides in the world - the water goes out for miles in places.

I think it's down to all these reasons that RIBs are so popular here.

Having said all this there are also some very pretty calm stretches of water.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research.../maws_pic.html

If you have a look at this you will see weather buoys you can get almost live data from - often you will see waveheights of 30 or 40' - mainly along the West Coast.

My local coastguard station reported a windspeed of 144mph a few years ago - we don't get much damage though as we get constant gales through the winter so trees etc only grow in sheltered spots.

Alex Brown · 27 January 2006, 08:25

Hello Pathalla,

Sea conditions here (I'm in South West Wales) vary from millpond to scary size waves which easily break over the bows of tankers that leave the haven. The year before last, we had a good period of sustained weather during the summer, but last year the conditions about 90% of the time I could get out (over weekends) were either too bad for the rib, fun for about 10mins, or just uncomfortable for a couple of hrs!!

Attached is a pic from late last summer (september) taken by Dale Morgan with a moderate wind upto 30knots. The wave height in this case is around 4 metres - the day before this, I was out in slightly less windy conditions and there was no sign of breaking waves.
If these waves were 4 metres high, but closer together, I'd definately not be out - even on a nice day when there's no wind, we can get a good 2 to 3 metre swell rolling in from the Atlantic and it makes the trip quite entertaining like a rollercoaster ride but smooth

-Alex