2011 Perigean spring high tide and coastal storm effects

For three days in October 2011, Delaware Sea Grant specialists Wendy Carey and Chris Petrone recorded images during the day-time high tides at Savannah Road near downtown Lewes, Del. 


Day 1, Thursday, Oct. 27, included relatively low atmospheric pressure and mild winds (5-10 mph) out of the southwest. Though tides were slightly higher than predicted, the overall impact of the wind was negligible.

Day 2, Friday, Oct. 28, north and northeast winds began to build as a low pressure system moved up the southeast coast of the United States. Sustained winds at the NOAA tide gauge, located roughly one mile from the video site, were recorded between 20-30 mph. While the predicted high tide level was identical to Thursday's (5.8 feet above MLLW), the strong north/northeast winds caused water to "pile up" inside Delaware Bay and its tributaries and raise the observed tide level roughly one foot higher than the calculated/predicted level. 


Day 3, Saturday, Oct. 29, the northeaster slowly tracked along the Delaware-Maryland coast. The atmospheric pressure dropped, the north/northeast winds shifted to east/northeast and continued with the same intensity as Day 2. With winds blowing from the northeast for more than 24 hours, the observed high tide was more than two feet higher than the calculated/predicted tide level.



Please visit ‪http://www.deseagrant.org‬ for more information.

Special thanks to the City of Lewes for their support of this pilot project.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• perigean
• spring
• tide
• nor'easter
• coastal
• flooding
• storm
• northeaster
• Delaware
• Sea
• Grant
• Lewes