Hurricane Hanna - July 2020
Dr. Hal Needham is in the field at Corpus Christi, Texas, gathering data on Hurricane Hanna
Time Series of Storm Tide History at Corpus Christi, Texas
As of 930AM CDT on Sat Jul 25, Hurricane Hanna has generated the 8th largest storm tide on record near Corpus Christi, and the highest in the past 40 years! The last time the salt water level exceeded 5.50 feet above NAVD88 datum was in Hurricane Allen (1980). U-Surge provides high water marks for 43 hurricanes and tropical storms at Corpus Christi since 1900.
About Corpus Christi U-Surge Data...
Corpus Christi U-Surge data are taken from a data-selection circle with a 10-mile radius. This circle covers the downtown area, the southern shore of Corpus Christi Bay, along Ocean Drive, and the tide gauge at Bob Hall Pier, which provides hourly water level data since 1985. This selection area combines data from inside the bay and along the barrier island. Ideally, data are all taken from the same physical area to avoid "mixed distributions", but in the case of Corpus Christi, the data from inside the bay provide a deeper history of high-magnitude events that are not available at Bob Hall Pier, while the tide gauge data at the pier provide numerous observations from smaller events since 1985. It's the best we can do for this region.
Data-Driven Flood Risk Analysis
U-Surge provides the first data-driven coastal flood risk analysis for communities from Texas to Maine. Check out this PBS Newshour documentary that features U-Surge and the importance of data-driven flood risk analysis.
Sample City Data
U-Surge provides the following innovations:
- First comprehensive storm surge dataset for coastal cities
- Conversions to a common datum for analysis
- Analytical tools to determine extreme water levels
- Mapping tools for spatial analysis of coastal flooding
- Combined storm surge + sea-level rise analysis
- CLICK on the map above to see a sample city (South Padre Island, Texas)