Improvements to the detection and analysis  of external surges in the North Sea

Böhme, Alexander; Gerkensmeier, Birgit; Bratz, Benedikt; Krautwald, Clemens; Müller, Olaf; Goseberg, Nils; Gönnert, Gabriele

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1947-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1947-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Coastal hazards and hydro-meteorological extremes

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1947-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 5

Research article

|

26 May 2023

Research article |

| 26 May 2023

Improvements to the detection and analysis of external surges in the North Sea

Alexander Böhme, Birgit Gerkensmeier, Benedikt Bratz, Clemens Krautwald, Olaf Müller, Nils Goseberg, and Gabriele Gönnert

Data sets

Waterinfo: Water level and astronomical tide in cm above NAP: Tide gauge Texel Noordzee Rijkwaterstaat https://waterinfo.rws.nl/#!/nav/publiek/

Uurwarden van weerstations: Station De Kooy Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut https://daggegevens.knmi.nl/

UK tide gauge network: Stations Aberdeen und Immingham British Oceanographic Data Centre https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/hosted_data_systems/sea_level/uk_tide_gauge_network/

Predicted tidal data: Station Cuxhaven-Steubenhöft Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency https://www.bsh.de/DE/DATEN/Vorhersagen/Gezeiten/gezeiten_node.html

Hourly measurements of wind and air pressure for Gemany, Version v21.3: Station Cuxhaven German Meteorological Service Climate Data Center https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/observations_germany/climate/hourly/

Short summary

External surges in the North Sea are caused by low-pressure cells travelling over the northeast Atlantic. They influence extreme water levels on the German coast and have to be considered in the design process of coastal defence structures. This study collects data about external surges from 1995–2020 and analyses their causes, behaviours and potential trends. External surges often occur less than 72 h apart, enabling a single storm surge to be influenced by more than one external surge.