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

Abstract

Abstract. External surges are a key component of extreme water levels in the North Sea. Caused by low-pressure cells over the North Atlantic and amplified at the continental shelf, they can drive water-level changes of more than 1 m at the British, Dutch and German coasts. This work describes an improved and semi-automated method to detect external surges in sea surface time histories. The method is used to analyse tide gauge and meteorological records from 1995 to 2020 and to supplement an existing dataset of external surges, which is used in the determination of design heights of coastal protection facilities. Furthermore, external surges are analysed with regard to their annual and decadal variability, corresponding weather conditions, and their interaction with storm surges in the North Sea. A total of 33 % of the 101 external surges occur within close succession of each other, leading to the definition of serial external surges, in which one or more external surges follow less than 72 h after the previous external surge. These serial events tend to occur more often during wind-induced storm surges. Moreover, the co-occurrence with a storm surge increases the height of an external surge by 15 % on average, highlighting the importance of the consideration of combined events in coastal protection strategies. The improved dataset and knowledge about serial external surges extend the available basis for coastal protection in the North Sea region.

Investigation of historical severe storms and storm tides in the German Bight with century reanalysis data

“…During the storm in 1962, additionally, a large contribution of external surge (Koopmann, 1962) raised the high surge in the entire southern North Sea. This phenomenon is mainly associated with the influence of low-pressure systems in the North-320 East Atlantic via inverse barometer effect, then enhancement at the continental shelf and finally propagation into the North Sea (e.g., Böhme et al, 2023). Thus, the ability of atmospheric reconstructions to represent the intensity, location and speed of the low-pressure system in the North-East Atlantic also contributes to a more realistic representation of the storm tides in the German Bight.…”