Abstract
Abstract. Offshore energy infrastructure, including the petroleum and wind energy sectors, are susceptible to damage and interruption by extreme meteorological events. In northwest Europe and especially the North Sea, these extreme meteorological events are mostly associated with severe storms in the autumn and winter seasons. In the North Sea, storm surges have an impact on the offshore energy sector mainly from the flooding of port facilities and from strong ocean currents causing extra structural loading and bottom scouring. Storm Britta on 31 October–1 November 2006 was an important North Sea storm with a high surge along the coast of the Netherlands and Germany and a significant number of high wave reports. The paper presents an analysis of the national tide gauge records of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark to spectrally isolate and reconstruct time series components corresponding to the storm surge, semi-diurnal tide, and short period contribution. The semi-diurnal tides and storm surge during Storm Britta are tracked counter-clockwise around the North Sea from Scotland to northern Denmark. The storm surge was remarkable for its pronounced peak in the coastal area between the Netherlands and Germany with no precedent in the ∼100 year measurement record. The short period component of the tide gauge records show large oscillations during the height of the storm that may correspond with reports of unusually high waves at nearby coastal locations.
Highlights
Offshore energy infrastructure is susceptible to damage and interruption by extreme meteorological events
Petroleum infrastructure was significantly impacted during Hurricane Katrina with a number of offshore drilling platforms destroyed by the high wind and wave field, floating platforms set adrift by strong ocean currents, and oil storage tanks displaced and ruptured by storm surge flooding of the ports (Cruz and Krausmann, 2013)
The goal of the present study is to investigate data from the North Sea tide gauge network, firstly to quantify the magnitude of the storm surge at different locations, and secondly to assess if the short period component of the water level records is linked with the reported wave events
Summary
Offshore energy infrastructure is susceptible to damage and interruption by extreme meteorological events. The coastal flooding that often accompanies the worst North Sea storms impacts offshore energy infrastructure and interrupts transport networks. Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was the most damaging hurricane in United States history It was associated with a high storm surge that was >8 m at some locations along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which was much larger than the 4.5 m storm surge for a historically important disaster at Galveston, Texas in 1900 (Pugh, 1987). Petroleum infrastructure was significantly impacted during Hurricane Katrina with a number of offshore drilling platforms destroyed by the high wind and wave field, floating platforms set adrift by strong ocean currents, and oil storage tanks displaced and ruptured by storm surge flooding of the ports (Cruz and Krausmann, 2013). The cyclone caused a 2–3 m storm surge that flooded the port of Kandla and caused extensive dam-
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