Go with the Flow; June 2012; Scientific American Magazine; by Sid Perkins; 1 Page(s)

Researchers have had a notoriously difficult time predicting how much flooding a given area will experience in the wake of a storm. Now a team led by researchers at Western Carolina University has developed a Web site and smartphone app that may help. The scientists gathered storm-surge data going back 65 years at more than 3,400 sites along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and are making it available just in time for the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season (see http://stormsurge.wcu.edu). Users can enter a zip code and view a map that shows all high-water measurements made in that area. Also shown are the paths of the hurricanes that caused those floods, along with other aspects that most likely influenced storm-surge height, including wind speed and barometric pressure.

The database, which the researchers continue to compile, will ultimately be maintained and archived at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. Detailed analyses of this information may lead to a better understanding of the nonstorm-related factors that influence surges, including the slope of the seafloor immediately offshore, says Katie McDowell Peek, a member of the Western Carolina team. And scientists may be better able to forecast a storm’s effects by comparing its projected path and strength with those of hurricanes that previously struck the coast.