Storm surge

A storm surge is an abnormal rise in sea level generated by a storm's winds and low atmospheric pressure, driven ashore to devastating effect. It is not a wave. It is a dome of water — a persistent elevation of the sea surface that can persist for hours, inundating coastal areas far inland. The storm surge is responsible for more tropical cyclone-related fatalities than wind or rain combined, yet it remains the least understood and least feared component of hurricane risk.

The physics is straightforward in principle: wind stress pushes water toward the coast, and low atmospheric pressure allows the sea surface to bulge upward (the inverted