The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.

The Draupner wave, also known as the New Year's wave or Draupner freak wave, was a rare freak wave that was the first to be detected by a measuring instrument. The wave, determined to be 25.6 m (84 ft) in height, was recorded on 1 January 1995 at Unit E of the Draupner platform, a gas pipeline support complex located in the North Sea about 160 km southwest from the southern tip of Norway.

The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, covering 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq mi).

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of 5.6 million. Its capital and largest city is Oslo. The country has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi). The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Barents Sea.

Rogue waves are large and unpredictable surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships and isolated structures such as lighthouses. They are distinct from tsunamis, which are long wavelength waves, often almost unnoticeable in deep waters and are caused by the displacement of water due to other phenomena. A rogue wave at the shore is sometimes called a sneaker wave.