Abstract
Weather and sea conditions offshore New Zealand are severe enough to be of concern for oil exploration or production, coastal engineering, and shipping; and there have been some bad experiences. Analysis of existing information will permit adequate predictions of likely conditions in most areas. To illustrate the type of data available, and its limitations, examples are presented from the the southern area of New Zealand. Ship report files, particularly those from oil rigs, give adequate indications of wind speed and direction, swell and sea height is reasonable if recalculated as combined wave height, swell directions are adequate, but many sea and swell periods are unreliable. Hinds derived from radar tracked balloons can be used to predict winds up to 250km offshore, which provides a large historical data base. Numerical model derived wave heights correctly indicate the pattern of wave height changes with time, but the amplitudes must be scaled for near site data.
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