Canada Department of Transport 
Meteorological Branch 
315 Bloor Street West 
Toronto 181, Ontario, Canada 
Publication 
Synthesized Winds and Wave Heights for the Great Lakes 
Richards, T. L., and Phillips, D. W., Climatological Studies Number 1/7 
Publication Date: 1970 
Location: Toronto on Lake Ontario, London on Lake Erie, 
‘Wiarton on Lake Huron, and Thunder Bay (formally 
called Lakehead) on Lake Superior 
Period of Coverage: 1956-67 
Contents: This paper employs an empirical method for developing analyses of 
what may be termed synthesized over-lake winds based on recently established 
relationships between over-land and over-lake winds. These synthesized data 
were used with a wind-wave hindcast technique used by the Directorate of the 
Canadian Naval Weather Service to develop wave height frequency analyses for 
each of the Great Lakes bordering Canada. 
The over-land and over-lake wind data are presented for each of the four 
towns and lakes, respectively. It is given by season, and the individual 
seasons are further broken down into monthly periods. The monthly periods 
provide wind direction (eight directions) and speed and percent of time during 
the month that the wind blew at this direction and speed. 
Monthly histograms of wave heights (generated by 100-nautical-mile fetch) 
are given for each lake. The last data given are probability distributions of 
significant wave heights greater than indicated thresholds for each lake. 
Available From: Canada Department of Transport 
Meteorological Branch 
315 Bloor Street West 
Toronto 181, Ontario, Canada 
Iv-51 
