Highest storm surge in US history

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

30 feet (Katrina, 2005)
24 feet (Camille, 1969)
22 feet (Carla, 1961)
18-25 feet (Long Island, 1938)
20 feet (Rita, 2005)
20 feet (Hugo, 1989)
15 feet (Galveston, 1900)
15 feet (Ivan, 2004)
15 feet (Miami, 1926)
14.5 feet (Hazel, 1954)
14.4 feet (Carol, 1954)
12-16 feet (Eloise, 1975)
12-15 feet (Opal, 1995)
12 feet (Audrey, 1957)

Add any other major surges you can think of to this list. Considering storm surge is the most dangerous part of a landfall, people should see a list like that when they look for hurricane information, not just the lowest landfall pressures, which can be a bit misleading when people are doing threat assessments before evacuating.

[AJC3]

Going on my normally-faulty memory here, but I think the '35 Labor Day Keys 'Cane had a 15-18ft surge. Anyone feel free to correct me.

[Jim Cantore]

What was Isabel? 9-12?

[Derek Ortt]

Andrew had a 17 foot surge

Rita's was not 20, more like 15

FL Keys was also about 20 feet

I believe Galveston was also about 20 feet, not 15

[rockyman]

I've seen reports of Frederic (79) of 9 to 15 feet....here's a link to an article claiming 15 foot surge.

http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hu ... ederic.htm

Although it has since been surpassed many times, Frederic was the costliest hurricane in US history when it struck in September 1979.

[Jim Cantore]

Frederic, no suprise

What about Elena, The Sea Islands Hurricane, and the Last Island Hurricane?

[Jim Cantore]

Or Indianola

[CHRISTY]

I think the greatest storm surge from an Atlantic hurricane was hurricane Katrina 28-30 feet.If iam correct the Old record was Hurricane Camille 1969 with around 25 feet.

[Jim Cantore]

I think the greatest storm surge from an Atlantic hurricane was hurricane Katrina 28-30 feet.If iam correct the Old record was Hurricane Camille 1969 with around 25 feet.

Katrina: 28 feet
Camille: 24.6 feet

[Jim Cantore]

Though I bet the Last Island and Indianola storms had a 20 foot surge

[CHRISTY]

SHOCKING PICS OF HURRICANE KATRINA'S STORM SURGE....TAKE A LOOK! I FOUND THESE IN ANOTHER FORUM I VISIT FORM TIME TO TIME.

http://www.mgcollins.com/Katrina/MRGOPage.html

[Dustin]

I thought Camile was 28 feet.

[CHRISTY]

I thought Camile was 28 feet.

no it was around 25 feet to be EXACT 24.6 feet.

[brunota2003]

I dont care if this isnt the "highest"...however these numbers are important...Hurricane Isabel...a weak Cat 2 produced 8-10 feet of surge here...and a weak CASTEGORY 1 hurricane, Ophelia The Pain In The *Insert Airhorn Of Choice Here* Hurricane, produced 6-8 feet...a "weak" Cat 1 with 6-8 feet of surge...oh...and Alex was a Cat 1 with around 4-6 feet and Charley was around 4 feet to here in NC...

[Audrey2Katrina]

One of the NOAA websites states that the Galveston Surge range was 8-15 feet. I feel it was probably at least 15.

Andrew's is reported on the same page as being 17 ft. at Florida landfall.

While a few vary, most sites I've checked say Camille's surge was 25 ft.

There ARE weather.gov websites saying Rita's surge was 15-20 ft.

Katrina's data are all over the place from highs over 30 ft. to around 28--regardless, still far and away the highest recorded to date.

A2K

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I know that the Hurricanes in 1635 and 1638 probably produced greater storm surges than the 'Great New England Hurricane' of 1938. I'll keep you posted as we continue to reconstruct the surge heights, but I'd say 25-30 ft (most likely 28 ft) would be a good bet for 1635's maximum surge height on the New England Coast.

In addition the 'Great September Gale of 1815' was almost as high as the 1938 hurricane.


* Of course these are not official numbers yet (just best estimate from an ongoing study of which I am a part), so please do not take them as such.

[Audrey2Katrina]

NOAA cites the surge of the Long Island Express (1938) to be 10-12 feet, but other sites I've found say 17... doubtless they didn't have means of measuring them as accurately back then, but given it's speed and size the range of 12-15 seems more realistic... who knows?

A2K

[wxman57]

One thing to keep in mind when comparing storm surges is that unless the hurricane hit the exact same point on the coast, at the exact same angle, and at the exact same speed, then it's hard to make a direct comparison of storm surge between two hurricanes. One very important determinant of storm surge height is the depth of the water along the immediate coast. The presence of deep water just offshore can significantly reduce the storm surge height. This is true all along the east U.S. coast. So any given city along the east U.S. coast may experience a surge that is perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 the height if the same hurricane hitting along parts of the Gulf Coast.

I put together a graphic from the "Shore Protection Manual" that details this "shoaling factor". Basically, you calculate the storm surge for a particular hurricane using central pressure, angle of impact, and speed of momvent and come up with a number. Last to consider is the shoaling factor of where the hurricane strikes the coast. This multiplier can be anywhere from 0.2 to 0.3 along the east U.S. Coast to as high as 2.0 in places along the Gulf Coast.

It just so happens that the two worst places for a hurricane to hit and produce the largest storm surge on the northern Gulf Coast are Bay St. Louis, MS and near Vermilion Bay, LA, just where Katrina and Rita hit. Tampa Bay isn't included on my graphic, but the surge multiplier is right up there around 1.8 to 2.0, I believe. Here's the graphic:

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/shoaling.gif

Now I also put together a little historical perspective of hurricane-force wind size in the NW Gulf of Mexico. I define this region as north of 25N and west of 88W (from just south of Brownsville, TX northward and west of Mobile Bay, AL. Note that hurricanes the size of Ivan, Katrina, and Rita are not THAT uncommon in the NW Gulf. Carla was probably the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the U.S. Coast. It had the largest radii of hurricane-force and 100 mph winds of any hurricane of which we have a decent wind record. It was also quite intense. Fortunately, Allen, Gilbert, and Opal weakened considerably before landfall. Betsy was pretty storng at landfall, though. I remember going through the western part of Betsy in Lafayette, LA.

The image below is a little large. Fits well on my giant LCD screen, though:

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/nwgulfmajors.gif

[Audrey2Katrina]

That's an interesting graphic, and it certainly lends credence to just what the surge of the infamous "Last Island" hurricane of 1856 might have been (Being in the Vermillion Bay area). This is estimated to have been a Cat 4 storm, and while no verifiable data is available on the surge that turned a barrier island resort complete with multiple-storey hotels and gambling casinos into a rent-into-pieces sandbar had to have been at least in the 15-20 ft. range IMO. This would also correlate to your graph well.

And while I agree with most of what you posted, including the Betsy comment, (I remember her well), I can't say I quite understand your comments about Carla. Perhaps that is because I'm not fully comprehending what you mean by "destructive" as there have been many storms that have far outstripped Carla in "destruction" as measured by either death toll, or damage figures. I DO remember when she hit Texas, as a child I watched with childlike thrill the televised reports; (not to mention never missing a report by our own local favorite: Nash Roberts, pulling out all his charts to graph its every movement) but I have no ready info on her wind field or radii of hurricane force winds. I DO know that NOAA reports have Katrina having a hurricane wind radius, at one point, of something akin to 120nm, and that's no slouch, as well as a NHC report citing it as one of the "largest" hurricanes in Atlantic Basin history. Verified hurricane winds from the western panhandle of Florida all the way to well into SE La. pretty much verify a swath some 200 miles across, again, hardly a small area of hurricane winds. I'm also dubious about the comment that hurricanes like Katrina and Rita are not that uncommon in the NW Gulf... both of these were strong Cat 5's and I just don't find that many Cat 5's in the NGOM at all, making them quite uncommon; but perhaps my research is lacking there--just don't know and perhaps that's just another differing way of looking at the semantics of "common".

All that aside, could you put that chart with the estimated Cat 4 strength of the Last Isle storm to come up with an estimated surge there? I believe most maps today refer to the remnant sandbars as Isles Derniere. Reading about this storm as a child (shortly after Audrey) began my fascination with these monster events, and I still say there's an awful lot about this one we don't have information on. Call it an insatiable curiosity with the storm that only left one terrified cow alive on an Island that previously had housed hundreds of revellers the night of Aug. 10, 1856.

A2K

[Stratosphere747]

I'll assume that 57 meant the destructive coverage of Carla. I've had an interesting debate on another forum about how big Carla really was. There are varying reports from knowledgeable mets that Carla's cloud coverage literally engulfed upwards of two-thirds of the GOM. Just visualizing, she would dwarf both Katrina and Rita.

Sustained winds ranging from 115 in Matagorda to 90 in Galveston, and grant you this is Texas, that is one heck of wind field of sustained winds, along with SS values from 18ft in the Corpus Christi area to 10 to 12ft from Galveston to Tx/La border. As far as SS coverage, she might just have had the largest range of any hurricane.

Wish we had a decent sat image of Carla.