Record High Wave: Another In A Zillion Weather Records

This is a ginormous wave on the coast of Portugal a couple
winters back, but it's not the biggest wave ever recorded
on Earth. AP photo via the Telegraph. 

When you look at the weather, there are a zillion different ways records can be broken.

We're all familiar with record high temperatures, record low temperatures, record rainfall, most snow ever.

You can also slice and dice weather phenomenon in so many different ways to uncover record this or record that.

Just last week, one of the coldest temperatures on record hit northern Maine. Not at the surface, where people live, but thousands of feet overhead above the Pine Street State.

With better technology and better observations and more eyes looking, we can see other records being set.

Recently, a world record was discovered for the world's tallest ocean wave. During a storm ion February, 4, 2013, a wave rose to 62.3 feet high somewhere between Iceland and Britain, the Telegraph in Britain reported. 

The wave was a little taller than the height of a six story building, and was measured by an automatic buoy.  I'm glad this particular wave didn't crash onshore anywhere.

The Telegraph says the North Atlantic in a region from just east of Canada to an area south of Iceland and west of Britain creates more huge waves than anywhere in the world.

Intense storms often form in this region, especially in the winter, so you can imagine how big waves can get there.

I imagine there have been other, bigger waves out in the open oceans, but we didn't have the measuring capability to find them. As measuring basically anything gets easier and easier, we'll find more and bigger records, and extremes in more esoteric subjects.

In the meantimes, I'd avoid any waves that are the height of a six-story building. It might be a bit painful.