Abstract. Storm tides represent a major threat to the low-lying German North Sea
coast. Knowledge of extremes is essential for the design of reliable and
robust coastal defences. A storm tide that occurred on 12–13 March 1906
along the German Bight coastline still represents one of the strongest
events on record. For this event, detailed knowledge of atmospheric and
hydrodynamic conditions is still lacking. To assess the potential impact of
such an event on today's coastline, century-long atmospheric reanalysis data
together with a manual synoptic reconstruction based on archived weather
data were used to drive a tide-surge model and to simulate water levels
during the event. Sensitivity experiments were performed to estimate
potential amplification of water levels that could have been caused by
different time lags between the storm and the astronomical tide. Comparison
between the model results and the limited available observational data
indicated that the water levels could be reasonably reconstructed using
wind fields from the manual synoptic approach and some of the reanalysis
ensemble members. The amplification potential was found to be low because
the storm occurred during spring tide and shifts in the phase of the
astronomic tide yielded only small changes in total water levels. To
summarise, if pressure data are available at relevant locations, historical
storm surges can be simulated with reanalysis products and also with a
manual synoptic reconstruction.
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