Climatological data of the Netherlands lightvessels over the period 1949-1980

A large number of tables with temperature-, wind-, wave-, visibility-and current data has been assembled revealing information about the climate of the North Sea. The tables are based upon meteorological and some oceanographic observations made onboard lightvessels during the period 1949-1980 and voluntary observing ships during the period 1961-1980.

In this report, which is the first of a series, a selection of these tables is given together with some characteristic data for the Netherlands lightvessels only.

This report can be regarded as a continuation of earlier work. On the other hand it also concludes the era of observations made by crews on board lightvessels, which gradually ended in the 1970's. The observations on fixed platforms which are now replacing the observations of the lightvessels are of a quite different character.

Next to giving data for the period mentioned, the observations have been compared with those published for earlier periods (1859-1883, 1884-1909 and 1910-1940).