An ensemble study of extreme storm surge related water levels in the North Sea in a changing climate

Sterl, A.; van den Brink, H.; de Vries, H.; Haarsma, R.; van Meijgaard, E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-5-369-2009

Articles | Volume 5, issue 3

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Articles | Volume 5, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-5-369-2009

Articles | Volume 5, issue 3

Article
Peer review
Metrics
Related articles

18 Sep 2009

| 18 Sep 2009

An ensemble study of extreme storm surge related water levels in the North Sea in a changing climate

A. Sterl, H. van den Brink, H. de Vries, R. Haarsma, and E. van Meijgaard

A. Sterl

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands

H. van den Brink

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands

H. de Vries

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands

R. Haarsma

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands

E. van Meijgaard

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands

Related subject area

Depth range: Surface | Approach: Numerical Models | Geographical range: Shelf Seas | Phenomena: Sea Level

The long-term variability of extreme sea levels in the German Bight

Andreas Lang and Uwe Mikolajewicz

Ocean Sci., 15, 651–668, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-651-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-651-2019, 2019

Short summary

Here we investigate the occurrence of extreme storm surges in the southern German Bight and their associated large-scale forcing mechanisms using climate model simulations covering the last 1000 years. We find that extreme storm surges are characterized by a large internal variability that masks potential links to external climate forcing or background sea level fluctuations; existing estimates of extreme sea levels based on short data records thus fail to account for their full variability.

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