Weather and Water

Using Weather Data to Create Models and Tools to Predict Coastal Impacts

Doug Pirhalla Project, Story Map Created by Gretchen Messick

March 18, 2022

Understanding and predicting climate-related issues along coastlines is important for management and coastal resiliency.

We provide scientific information and tools on connections between climate, weather and coastal impacts from hazards including storms, rising seas, floods, and changing air/water temperatures.

Why We Care

What We Are Doing

We use satellite-derived data, in situ conditions and atmospheric patterns over large geographic areas as inputs to predict changes in coastal ecosystems.

Results are analyzed and reassessed to eventually determine what weather-driven indicators can be used to measure or model a particular resilience characteristic.

Weather and Water: Using weather data to create models and tools to predict coastal impacts - NCCOS Coastal Science Website

Understanding and predicting climate-related issues along coastlines is important for management and coastal resiliency. We provide scientific information and tools on connections between climate, weather and coastal impacts from hazards including storms, rising seas, floods, and changing air/water temperatures.

https://coastalscience.noaa.gov

Examples

Sea Surface Temperature Used to Model Weather Driven Coastal Change That Can Cause Sea Turtle Hypothermia and Mortality.

This project assessed cold snap mortality and hypothermia in loggerhead and green sea turtles in south Florida coastal ecosystems to develop a biological cold stress index using satellite sea surface temperature and weather pattern forcing.

This work allows sea turtle rescue workers to be better prepared for when the next cold snap mortality or hypothermia event may occur.

Assessing Cold-Snap and Mortality Events in South Florida

Coastal Ecosystems: Development of a Biological Cold Stress Index Using Satellite SST and Weather Pattern Forcing

https://repository.library.noaa.gov

Development of a Water Clarity Index for the Great Lakes as a Climate Indicator

Great Lakes

Anomalous Coastal Sea Level Variability Patterns Along the Atlantic Coast and Their Linkages to Synoptic-Scale Weather Forcing

Tide Gauge Station Locations for Anomalous Coastal Sea Level Variability Pattern Study Along the Atlantic Coast

This study examined sea level variability along the U.S. Atlantic coast through satellite altimeter and coastal tide gauge data in the context of synoptic weather pattern forcing.

Altimetry- derived sea level anomaly (SLA) data between 1993 and 2018 were compared with Self Organizing Map (SOM)-based atmospheric circulation and surface wind field categorizations to reveal spatiotemporal patterns and their inter-relationships with high water-level conditions from tide gauges.