The WIS transformation was therefore halted at a depth of 18.29 m (60 ft) 
MLW. Since the Phase III technique does not adequately describe wave 
propagation and transformation over irregular and greatly varying nearshore 
bathymetry, a fine-meshed nearshore grid and wave refraction model were 
employed to bring the waves into shallower water, with the WIS hindcast 
providing the input. 
Characteristics of the 
wave hindeast data set 
37. Each year of the hindcast contains values of significant wave 
height, peak spectral period, and peak spectral direction for both sea and 
swell (6 values) at 3-hr intervals for a total of 17,520 values per year. 
(More precisely, WIS provides an estimate of an energy-based wave height 
called Hom however, for deep water, H,, is effectively equivalent to the 
significant wave height, H,, which is defined as the average wave of the high- 
est one-third of the waves in the record or observation.) General statistics 
for each year of the WIS Phase III hindcast (Appendix B) were compiled as 
given in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 gives a comparative summary of the signifi- 
cant wave height and peak spectral period by year, and Table 2 summarizes 
characteristics of the hindcast according to wave direction. The orientation 
of the coast is shown in Figure 8. In Table 1, the column labeled "Events" 
gives the ordinal number of the 62 largest storms occurring in the 20-year 
hindeast for the associated year. The column labeled "Greater than Hsavg" 
marks those years with an average significant wave height greater than the 
20-year average. The right-hand column contains general observations result- 
ing from the comparison of yearly statistics. A more detailed summary of the 
statistics determined in the hindcast can be found in Appendix B. 
38. The 200 largest wave heights from the 20-year WIS hindcast were 
identified for use in possible future work along this coast. The 200 highest 
waves occurred in 62 storms ("Events" in Table 1). Appendix B gives a table 
of the 200 largest wave heights ranked in descending order, together with the 
corresponding date, wave period, and wave direction measured from the south. 
The largest wave height in each storm is preceded by a line containing aster- 
isks and the ranking of the storm, based on the largest wave height it 
contained. 
* For convenience, symbols and abbreviations are listed in the Notation, 
Appendix A. 
26 
