Storm surges during hurricanes can be incredibly dangerous. We VERIFY three key questions about storm surges and who is most at risk.. Storm surge combines with the local tide and wind-driven waves to push a large amount of water onshore, which frequently leads to significant damage. estimates the severity of the storm and its impacts. “Major hurricanes” fall under Categories 3, 4 and 5 on the scale.
The scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s peak wind speeds. It does not take into account storm surge and other potentially deadly hazards,, which made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane in August 2011, caused an 8-to-11-foot storm surge, according to NWS. , which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm in 2004. Hurricane Charley produced a storm surge of 6-to-8 feet, NWS data show.
The shape of the seafloor also contributes to an area’s risk of higher storm surge. Coastal areas where the nearby seafloor is shallow are more likely to be affected by large storm surges than coastal areas with a deep seafloor, the UCAR Center says. For example, the Big Bend Coast of Florida is an “exceptionally storm surge-vulnerable location” due to the curvature of its coastline and underwater topography, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, told VERIFY.the peninsula merges into the Florida Panhandle, just southwest of the capital of Tallahassee and north of the Tampa metropolitan area.
Other factors also influence storm surge, including the hurricane’s angle of approach, intensity, size and forward speed, according to, which occur along the East Coast, may hit at any time of year, but they are “most frequent and violent” between September and April, NWS says. Though extratropical storms like Nor’Easters can produce storm surges, those surges are “usually much weaker” than those associated with hurricanes, Swain said.