ScienceNot yet confirmed elsewhere1 publisher2 min readPublished
Ucluelet's 2020 rogue wave holds the record for rising furthest above the seas around it
A MarineLabs buoy off Ucluelet, British Columbia, was lifted 17.6 meters by a rogue wave in November 2020, the most extreme on record by relative size, ScienceAlert reports. The 1995 Draupner wave was taller, at 25.6 meters, so the Ucluelet record is a ranking by proportion.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- Scientists class a wave as rogue when it stands more than double the height of the waves around it.
- According to ScienceAlert, the Ucluelet wave was nearly three times the size of its peers.
- ScienceAlert says an event of this kind is thought to happen only once every 1,300 years.
- A University of South Florida-led analysis published in Ocean Science in February 2026 found that global wave models consistently underestimate how extreme waves can get.
Why it matters
- constraint The 1,300-year interval is hedged in the source as "thought to", and the source does not say how it was derived or who confirmed the record. We would use it as an order of magnitude.
- exposure Offshore operators on the US West Coast sit in the zone where the South Florida analysis found rogue waves cluster most heavily, with the peak in winter.
- contradiction The source says the record may not last because a 2020 study projected higher North Pacific wave heights, but that study concerns height and the Ucluelet record concerns proportion, so the link is the source's inference.
Draupner is the useful comparison, because it shows what the ratio means. That wave struck an oil-drilling platform about 160 kilometers off Norway on 1 January 1995 [10]. It stood 25.6 meters against neighbors of 12 meters [6], a ratio of about 2.1 [19], barely over the twice-the-height line for a rogue wave [5]. Ucluelet's wave was 8 meters shorter [20]. If its ratio was close to three, the seas around it were somewhat above 5.9 meters, roughly half the height of the seas around Draupner [23].
"Most extreme" is therefore a ranking by proportion, and the pool it ranks is small. Dozens of rogue waves have been recorded since Draupner [11]. Physicist Johannes Gemmrich of the University of Victoria said: "Only a few rogue waves in high sea states have been observed directly, and nothing of this magnitude." [9]
The observation depends on where a sensor happened to be. MarineLabs placed the buoy offshore along with dozens of others, to learn more about hazards in deep water [3]. Any record in this field is a record among waves that something was positioned to measure. The thing this doesn't tell you is how many comparable waves passed unmeasured. The source says the wave might never have been known had the buoy not been lifted by it [18].
Neither Ucluelet nor Draupner caused severe damage or took lives [17]. The source lists marine operations, wind farms and oil rigs among the things such waves can destroy far offshore [16].
The South Florida analysis also flagged a possible early-warning sign in the buoy data [15]. MarineLabs CEO Scott Beatty said: "The potential of predicting rogue waves remains an open question, but our data is helping to better understand when, where, and how rogue waves form, and the risks that they pose." [12]
What to watch
- Whether the early-warning sign the South Florida team flagged holds up in other buoy records.
- Whether a buoy records a wave that stands further above its neighbors than Ucluelet's did.
- Whether forecast models are revised to capture the long tail the South Florida analysis found they miss.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives40
- Confidence60
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
In November 2020 a freak wave lifted a lone buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters (58 feet) high.
- [2]
The wave was later confirmed to be the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.
- [3]
The buoy that picked up the Ucluelet wave was placed offshore, along with dozens of others, by MarineLabs in an attempt to learn more about hazards out in the deep.
- [4]
The Ucluelet wave was not the tallest rogue wave recorded, but its relative size compared to the waves around it was unprecedented.
- [5]
Scientists define a rogue wave as any wave more than twice the height of the waves surrounding it.
- [6]
The Draupner wave was 25.6 meters tall, while its neighbors were only 12 meters tall.
- [7]
The Ucluelet wave was nearly three times the size of its peers.
- [8]
Physicist Johannes Gemmrich of the University of Victoria said in 2022: "Proportionally, the Ucluelet wave is likely the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded."
- [9]
Gemmrich said: "Only a few rogue waves in high sea states have been observed directly, and nothing of this magnitude."
- [10]
On the first day of 1995, a nearly 26-meter (85-foot) wave, the Draupner wave, struck an oil-drilling platform about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Norway.
- [11]
Since the Draupner wave, dozens more rogue waves have been recorded, some even in lakes.
- [12]
MarineLabs CEO Scott Beatty said: "The potential of predicting rogue waves remains an open question, but our data is helping to better understand when, where, and how rogue waves form, and the risks that they pose."
- [13]
A team led by University of South Florida researchers published an analysis in Ocean Science in February 2026, testing years of real buoy data against global wave models, and found the models consistently underestimate how extreme waves can get, missing much of the long tail of rare, towering waves.
- [14]
In that analysis rogue waves peaked in winter and clustered most heavily off the US West Coast, with the North Atlantic a close second, putting the Pacific Northwest, where the Ucluelet wave struck, in the highest-risk zone.
- [15]
The South Florida researchers also flagged a possible early-warning sign in the data.
- [16]
Even when freak waves occur far offshore, they can still destroy marine operations, wind farms, or oil rigs.
- [17]
Neither the Ucluelet nor the Draupner wave caused any severe damage or took any lives.
- [18]
The source says that if the buoy had not been taken for a ride, the occurrence of the wave might never have been known.
- [19]
The Draupner wave stood about 2.1 times the height of its neighbors.
- [20]
The Draupner wave was 8.0 meters taller than the Ucluelet wave.
- [21]
Such an event is thought to happen only once every 1,300 years.
- [22]
A 2020 study predicted that wave heights in the North Pacific will increase with climate change, which the source says suggests the Ucluelet wave may not hold its record as long as current predictions suggest.
- [23]
If the Ucluelet ratio was close to three, the seas around it were somewhat above 5.9 meters, roughly half the 12 meters around Draupner.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- sciencealert.comMassive Wave in The Pacific Was The Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record
1 article · October 11, 2026
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.