Storm Surge Flood Report - December 2013

Those in the UK will be well aware of last week's tidal surge - so the following background is, in part, to help those, such as Tom Altee our most active US-based poster, who won't have been following our weather.

The surge was caused by a combination of spring tides and a deep low pressure area. This meant sea levels rose significantly above normal levels for a spring tide. In addition it drove northerly winds over the North Sea, building up water levels considerably as wind and tide struggled to push the sea through the Straits of Dover. The result around Norfolk, the area of the UK that sticks out into the North Sea, was severe.

A similar event in 1953 caused the deaths estimated at 307 in coastal towns and villages and 177 aboard fishing boats. Less often reported in the UK were the 3,000 deaths in Holland and Belgium.

Last week's event was more severe than that of 1953 with water levels some 8 inches (20cm) higher and it was only down to adequate warnings and better sea defences that no lives were lost this time.

I'll leave others here to fill in their own experience. I'll just post a photograph that a friend of mine has sent me. It was taken at Blakeney on the North Norfolk coast one of the areas affected most severely and where he reports "Blakeney has a fleet of boats sitting on its roadway":


Some of you will recognise this as Echo, a boat which I photographed back in 2005, when I first went SeaHawk hunting after starting this site.