How Planetary Waves Can Cause Nuisance Flooding

Rossby Waves, sometimes referred to as planetary waves, result mainly from the rotation of the Earth and they travel very slowly; it can take them months or even years to cross the oceans. Tracking them, and knowing how they can escalate the risk of nuisance flooding, provides the opportunity to forecast periods when tides are dangerously high several months before it happens, Wahl said.

“Using this information can help us develop an operational tool that gives home and business owners, as well as city managers the much-needed time to prepare and mitigate the negative impacts” he added.

Nuisance flooding, or sometimes called sunny-day flooding, occurs because of high tides, sea-level rise, land subsidence and the loss of natural barriers, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The federal agency found that this kind of flooding causes such public inconveniences as frequent road closures. It overwhelms storm drains and compromises infrastructure and this type of flooding “has increased in the U.S. on average by about 50 percent since 20 years ago and 100 percent since 30 years ago.”

Miami is no stranger to this kind of flooding. Some years the city has faced more of it compared to others and until this team completed its study, the driving forces weren’t well understood.

The team, led by Francisco Calafat of the National Oceanography Centre in England, includes Fredrik Lindsten from Uppsala University in Sweden, Joanne Williams from the National Oceanography Centre and Eleanor Frajka-Williams from the University of Southampton in England.

Contacts and sources:
Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala
University of Central Florida