Herakles (pusher) the fuel supply and lubrication system due to the violent pitching of the vessel were not ruled out. On 2 March 2004 the weather in the Bothnian Sea gradually developed into a force 10 storm on the Beaufort scale, with average wind speed around and gusts exceeding . At midnight, shortly before "Herakles-Bulk" sank, the ten-minute average at Svenska Högarn was with three-second gusts of almost . The freezing temperatures combined with strong wind and high waves resulted in fast icing of the ship structures. In 1992 the Finnish Maritime Administration issued a wind limit of for "Herakles" due to
Hurricane Severity Index the index uses a 50-point scale, with half of the total based on wind intensity, and half based on the wind fields. Wind radii data from every named storm since 1988 was studied. From these data, average wind radii ranges of four wind fields (39, 58, 74, and 100 mph) were calculated. Once the typical ranges were established, each wind field range was divided into sections. Since hurricane-force winds are much more damaging than tropical storm-force winds, the size scale is weighted more toward the 74 and 100 mph wind fields. With the HSI, a tropical storm can receive no