Obviously with Hurricane Ida coming it’s all over the news. They’re saying storm surges could be several feet. I understand if it breaks a dam or a levy how the water can get that high. But how can a Hurricane bring so much water inland?
In: Earth Science
A storm surge is basically when wind blows the ocean up onto the land.
If you put some water on a plate and blow on it, you’ll be able to get it to go at least partway up the rim of the plate on the side you’re blowing towards. That’s basically what the hurricane is doing, except on a continental scale.
Hurricanes also produce large amounts of rain (which is water they evaporated from the ocean while they were over it), which isn’t technically part of the storm surge but definitely does contribute to flooding.
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