'ESTONIA'-THE WEATHER

http://members.tripod.com/~MV_Estonia/wether.html


'ESTONIA'-THE WEATHER

The weather situation at the accident site has been exaggerated mainly by the media, but also from rumors among people, believing that "of course, there must have been a storm, the ship sank". We have all heard and read that Estonia sank in stormy weather, and also with wind around 25 m/s. The fact is that the storm came first in the morning the 28:th, and that the center of the storm was more towards the west, at Bogskär. The weather was rough but far from extreme or storm.

Shown in the table below, the wind observations during the night. The wind in the area between Utö and Ristna where Estonia sank, was mean 15 m/s. In the early morning at 05.00 it was mean 18 m/s up to max 29 m/s at Ristna, but at Utö it was still mean 15 m/s.
One shall remember that 15 m/s is rough weather, specially for people not used to the sea. Most passengers aboard this type of ferry are not specially used to rough weather. People in a ferry like this get seasick on open water already with wind around 10 - 15 m/s, and believe there is a storm.

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Wind observations (from the JAIC final report, table 5.3).

Day/ time	Söder- arm	Svenska Högarna	Bog- skär	Utö	Rus- sarö	Ristna
27/9 1700 hours	SW 09 mean 12 max.	SW 12 mean 14 max	SW 13 mean 14 max	SW 09 mean -	WSW 09 mean -	SW 08 mean 12 max
27/9 2000 hours	SW 11 mean 13 max	SSW 14 mean 16 max	S 14 mean 17 max	SSW 13 mean -	SW 08 mean -	SSW 08 mean 14 max
27/9 2300 hours	S 13 mean 17 max	SW 16 mean 18 max	SW 17 mean 18 max	SW 15 mean -	S 16 mean -	WSW 16 mean 21 max
28/9 0200 hours	SW 14 mean 15 max	W 17 mean 18 max	SW 20 mean 21 max	SW 15 mean -	SW 12 mean -	WSW 15 mean 22 max
28/9 0500 hours	W 20 mean 20 max	WNW 24 mean 24 max	W 19 mean 22 max	WSW 15 mean -	WSW 12 mean -	W 18 mean 29 max
28/9 0800 hours	WNW 17 mean 20 max	WNW 18 mean 25 max	WNW 21 mean 24 max	WNW 13 mean -	WNW 09 mean -	W 17 mean 26 max
28/9 1100 hours	WNW 12 mean 17 max	WNW 14 mean 18 max	- - -	W 15 mean -	WNW 11 mean -	W 12 mean -