Abnormal waves during Hurricane Camille

A reanalysis is reported of the wave time series recorded during Hurricane Camille having as objective the identification of individual waves that satisfy current criteria defining abnormal or freak waves. It is shown that during the hurricane development, a very nonstationary situation has occurred during which the second-order sea state parameters changed significantly with time. The parameters of the largest individual waves in sea states which identify abnormal waves did not show any clear trend, and such waves occurred during the development stage and not when the significant wave height was the largest. It is argued that the present criteria of identification of abnormal waves are not satisfactory, as they do not take into account the nature of the sea states in which the waves occur.