Storm surge

Darren Ray – head of the South Australian climate section of the bureau of meteorology – spoke at the talk last week ‘Rising Tides & Climate Change’ at the Hawke Centre here in Adelaide, a podcast is available.

He said that – along with

the obvious dangers of sea level rise goes the even more damaging storm surges. As shown by the water damage in New York.

An increase in sea level of 20cm raises the chance of storm surges from 1:100 years to 1:10 or 1:5 years.

An increase of 50cm raises the chance to 1:10 years – 1/year.

The rise forecast in by the end of the century is ~ 1 metre.