angles are relative to the pier at 90° and the beach oriented from 0° to 180°. 



110. Wave heights approached the beach most frequently (50 percent) 

 from the north side of the pier, 5 percent were shore normal, and 45 percent 

 came from the south side of the pier (Figure 17a). Although accounting for 

 less than 2 percent, waves in excess of 2 m approached from angles greater than 

 60 deg north of the pier axis. The angles shown represent the frequency of 

 wave occurrence in 22.5-deg intervals, 11.25 deg on both sides of the angle 

 displayed; except for the interval which includes the pier, which is split 

 into angles greater than 76.25 deg and less than or equal to 90.0 deg; i.e., 

 includes the shore-normal directions and angles greater than 90.0 deg but 



less than or equal to 98.75 deg. 



111. The resultant magnitude and direction of wave approach for the 

 year was 0.5 m from an angle 13 deg north of the pier axis, respectively, as 

 shown in Figure 17b. Figure 17b also indicates the seasonality of the wave 

 climate: waves during the cold months of January through March and October 

 through December showed a northeastern tendency, while during April through 

 September the waves approached more nearly shore-normal or from south of the 

 pier. 



112. The seasonal wave roses presented in Figure 18 indicate there was 

 a strong northeastern tendency during January through March. During the pe- 

 riod from April through June, somewhat of a transition period, waves approached 

 slightly more often from south of the pier, while waves in July through Sep- 

 tember had a strong southerly tendency. Waves during October through December 

 showed the greatest tendency for approaching from the northeastern directions. 



113. The tendency for waves to approach from north or south of the pier 

 was very well correlated to the variation in the tendency for northern or 

 southern winds (see paragraphs 91-101). 



114. Although no hurricane severely affected the FRF, high wave condi- 

 tions associated with "northeaster" storms occurred regularly during the cold 

 months. On 16 occasions, the significant wave height exceeded 2 m at the sea- 

 ward end of the pier, 25 percent of which persisted for 3 or more days (see 

 the persistence tables in Appendix B) . Three storms were particularly severe 

 and accounted for the extreme significant wave heights measured at each gage 

 location. First, on 3 March, a low pressure system located off the Virginia- 

 North Carolina coast produced persistent onshore winds and high waves (see 

 Figure 9); the high water levels produced significant wave heights H in 



53 



