gage 625 in Figure 14 were similar for all gages; waves were most severe dur- 

 ing fall and winter. Seasonal wave period distributions (Figure 15) were also 

 similar for all gages. In general, the tendency was for a high proportion of 

 wave periods at 10 and 11 sec during January through June; 8- and 9-sec 

 periods during July through September; and 10 sec or longer from October 

 through December. 



75. The distribution of wave directions for the year, based on visual 

 observations (Figure 16) , revealed that waves approached the north side of the 

 pier 35 percent of the time, from the south 61 percent, and approximately 

 shore-normal 4 percent. However, when wave heights exceeded 2 m at the sea- 

 ward end of the pier, the waves approached three out of every four times from 

 the north side and the other times the waves approached from near shore-normal. 



76. Seasonal variation of wave direction is shown in Figure 17. Wave 

 directions were bimodal during January through March, approaching from north 

 and south of the pier almost equally. The waves were predominantly from the 

 south side during the rest of the year despite frequent northerly waves during 

 August and September and shore-normal waves in September and October 



(Table 6). 



Present versus past years 



77. Based on the data from gage 625, the wave conditions during 1984 

 were mild in comparison with prior years (Figure 18). The frequency of wave 

 heights above the annual mean was the lowest of any year since 1980. In par- 

 ticular, February and March were much less severe than prior years (Fig- 

 ure 19). Wave periods were generally longer throughout the year (Figure 20), 

 with higher occurrences of 10- and 11-sec periods measured. 



78. The wave directions for the year were from south of the pier 9 per- 

 cent more often than during prior years (Figure 16). The resultant wave 

 height and angle were 0.8 m and 73.6 deg, respectively, while for 1980 through 

 1983 the wave height and angle were 0.8 m and 66.5 deg (the pier is aligned at 



70 deg). However, during storms ( H > 2 m) all of the wave approach angles 



m 



were from the north or shore-normal. 

 All years combined 



79. The 5 years of data from 1980 through 1984 provide the most com- 

 plete description of the wave climate at the FRF. The annual and seasonal 

 height distributions for the gage at the seaward end of the research pier are 

 presented in Figure 21. Ten percent of the wave heights exceed 1.8m and 



43 



