  The paper describes the existing operational sea state forecast system of
NIMH- BAS for sea state in the Black Sea and our current progress on the
implementation of an additional component for the forecasts of wind waves in
the Bulgarian coastal zone. Wind Waves and especially the extreme ones,
occurring during severe storms are a major hazard for the coastal zone, causing
significant damages to the infrastructure, threat for the human lives and also
causing significant damages to the protected areas around the coast. The
numerical model WAVEWATCH III is in use for wind waves forecasts for the entire
Black Sea with horizontal resolution of 1/8 degree (roughly 14 kilometers),
which is sufficient for the open Sea, but not enough for a detailed coastal
forecast. For the purposes of the coastal forecasts and early warnings in case
of severe storms we decided to implement SWAN (Simulating the Waves Near
Shore)- development of TU- DELFT. In this paper we will describe the brief
details about the coastal sea state forecasting system of NIMH- BAS and a case
study of the storm of 07-08 February 2012, which is the severest storm in our
coastal area for the last decade (and probably longer period).
