Beaufort Sea off Prudhoe Bay lies off Alaska at 71.00° N, 149.00° W. Significant wave height there exceeds 2 m about 12% of the time across the months with data, roughly 4 days a month on average. The roughest month is October, with a mean significant wave height of 1.4 m and seas above 2 m about 21% of the time; the calmest is August, with a mean of 0.8 m and about 4.1% of the time above 2 m. Waves above 4 m occur about 0.3% of the time. The source holds no wave statistics for November to July at this cell, which usually means sea ice; the annual figures on this page cover the remaining months only.
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Mean significant wave height and the percentage of time the significant wave height is above each level, by calendar month. The last row combines the months weighted by their length in days.
| Month | Mean Hs (m) | % above 1 m | % above 1.5 m | % above 2 m | % above 2.5 m | % above 3 m | % above 4 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| February | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| March | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| April | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| May | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| June | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| July | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| August | 0.8 | 27% | 10% | 4.1% | 1.2% | 0.2% | <0.1% |
| September | 1.0 | 44% | 22% | 11% | 3.9% | 1.2% | <0.1% |
| October | 1.4 | 59% | 37% | 21% | 12% | 6.3% | 1.0% |
| November | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| December | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data | no data |
| Months with data | 1.1 | 43% | 23% | 12% | 5.8% | 2.6% | 0.3% |
Wind at 10 m across the year: typically 6.6 m/s (13 kn), top 10% above 11.3 m/s (22 kn). Monthly means run from 5.7 m/s in August to 7.7 m/s in October.
Weather windows: a typical month fits about 22 separate 24 h periods with significant wave height below 2 m, fewest in October (about 16) (over the 3 months with data). Periods do not overlap, so a 30 day month holds at most 30.
Nearest mapped asset to the data point: Northstar, oil and gas field, about 15 m water depth, 56 km away. Source: Global Oil & Gas Extraction Tracker, Global Energy Monitor (CC BY 4.0). Positions are indicative unit centroids.
Data basis: WAVERYS wave reanalysis (Copernicus Marine) + ERA5 wind, 1980-2023, 3 hourly. Data point 71.00° N, 149.00° W (0.2° grid), 0 km from the named position, 23,800 samples. Values are for the nearest grid cell and are not interpolated.
Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information: WAVERYS global wave reanalysis [1980-2023], 3 hourly significant wave height, peak period and direction. Wind statistics from the ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus C3S) on its 0.5 degree grid (wind, direction rose, diurnal cycle and ENSO split 1980-2024). Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF nor Mercator Ocean is responsible for any use of this information.
How the numbers are made: How it works. Other locations: all location pages.
Thrust Maritime, Sea State Explorer, Beaufort Sea off Prudhoe Bay, WAVERYS wave reanalysis (Copernicus Marine) + ERA5 wind 1980-2023, 3 hourly, page built 2026-10-23, accessed [date], https://seastate.thrustm.com/locations/beaufort-sea-prudhoe-bay.html
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