In November 2020, a strange wave appeared out of nowhere, lifting a single buoy off the coast of British Columbia to a height of 17.6 meters (58 feet). The four-story wall of water was finally confirmed in February 2022 as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.

It is believed that such an extraordinary event only occurs once every 1,300 years. And if the float hadn’t gone out for a ride, we wouldn’t even know it was happening. For centuries rogue waves were considered nothing more than marine folklore. The legend only became true in 1995. On the first day of the new year, a wave almost 26 meters (85 feet) high suddenly crashed into an oil rig about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Norway. The wave, then called the Draupner wave, challenged all previous models created by scientists.

Dozens of more erratic waves have been recorded since then (some even in lakes), and while the wave near Ucluelet on Vancouver Island was not the highest, its relative size compared to the waves around it was unprecedented. Scientists define a rogue wave as any wave that is twice as high as the waves surrounding it. For example, Draupner’s wave was 25.6 meters high, while its neighbors were only 12 meters high.

By comparison, the Ucluelet wave was nearly three times larger than its counterparts.

“In proportion, the Ucluelet wave is probably the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded,” University of Victoria physicist Johannes Hemmrich said in 2022.

“Only a few dangerous waves have been directly observed offshore and nothing of this magnitude.”

Today, researchers are still trying to understand how irregular waves form so we can better predict when they will appear. This includes real-time measurements of dangerous waves and working models of the path of wind-blown waves. The buoy that caught the Ucluelet wave was deployed offshore along with dozens of other buoys by a research institute called MarineLabs to learn more about the dangers of the deep.

Even if the waves originate far from shore, they can destroy offshore operations, wind farms or oil platforms. If they are big enough, they can even endanger the lives of beachgoers. Fortunately neither Ucluelet nor Draupner caused serious damage or loss of life, although other rogue waves did.

For example, some ships that disappeared in the 1970s are now thought to have sunk due to sudden waves. The remnants of the floating debris look like the formation of a huge white cap. Unfortunately, a 2020 study predicted that wave heights in the North Pacific will increase with climate change, suggesting that the Ucluelet wave may not hold its record for as long as our current forecasts predict.

“We are committed to improving safety and decision-making for maritime operations and coastal communities through large-scale measurement of the world’s coastline,” said MarineLabs CEO Scott Beattie. “Catching this once-in-a-millennium wave in our own backyard is a fascinating demonstration of the power of coastal intelligence to transform maritime security.”