VIMS researchers take storm-tide predictions to the streets
“It might not seem like much, but half a foot is the difference between water in your yard and water in your living room.” –VIMS Assoc. Professor Harry Wang
Weather along the banks of Chesapeake Bay can change overnight. One day you're enjoying warm sand between your toes and the fragrant hint of coconut in your SPF 45. The next day you're digging out your rain gear and hoping that the power will stay on.
Hurricanes and nor’easters are two bringers of bad weather to the Bay. To visitors these storms mean big waves, strong undertows, and disrupted vacations. But, to the tens of thousands who make their home on the shores of the Bay, they are much more serious. Severe storms raise water levels, threatening their livelihoods and homes.
VIMS to the rescue
Aware of the potentially devastating impact of hurricanes and nor’easters to the Bay's coastal residents, VIMS Associate Professor Harry Wang leads a program to deliver timely and detailed predictions of storm tides, right down to street-level. Joining Wang are John Boon, Jian Shen, Kyoung-ho Cho, David Forrest, Leonidas Linardakis, Wenping Gong, and Tao Shen.
Wang's team faces a daunting task that is made difficult by the countless creeks, coves, and tributaries that form Chesapeake Bay’s 11,000-mile-plus shoreline. Depending on factors like wind speed and direction, rainfall amounts in a particular watershed, and tide levels, water levels during a storm can differ significantly along shorelines lying only a few tens of miles apart.
The team perseveres. They know that better information can help emergency managers alert individual neighborhoods about appropriate protective measures and possible evacuation during hurricanes and nor’easters. Like all of us, they have seen the tragic results of misinformation—or missing information—during a weather-related crisis. Avoiding similar tragedy in your own backyard is a strong incentive.
Wang estimates street-level storm-tide predictions along Chesapeake Bay in five years. From anyone else, this might sound unreasonably optimistic. But when it comes to matters of the Bay, VIMS delivers.
Learn more about street-level storm-tide predictions at http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/2008-storm-tide-prediction.php