Baltic storm flood

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Storm floods on the Baltic Sea arise after storms from the northwest, when the water is pushed towards the Baltic States and the Gulf of Finland and water flows in from the North Sea. When storms then turn to the northeast, the dammed water from the east is suddenly pushed towards Rügen and Schleswig-Holstein. The water cannot flow back into the North Sea so quickly and this is how flooding occurs .

Storm flood vs. Storm surge

Colloquially, almost all floods are referred to as storm surge . However, since the Baltic Sea has no significant tidal range, there is no tide here that is intensified. The bottom of a flood in the Baltic Sea is always a storm .

Classification and warnings

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

The flood marks in Wieck (Greifswald) - above 1872 = 2.64 m and below 1995 = 1.94 m

For the German Baltic Sea coast, the water level service of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency creates twice a day forecasts of the water level in the Baltic Sea and provides information about increased water levels at a water level of 0.75 m above mean water level and gives a water level above 1.0 m above mean water level a storm flood warning out.

The BSH categorizes water levels in the Baltic Sea as severe storm tides with 1.50–2.00 m above mean water level and very severe storm surges with more than 2.00 m above mean water level.

The history of coastal protection on the German Baltic Sea coast shows the measures taken to contain the consequences of the floods.

History (since 1872)

Since 1872, reliable levels have been regularly taken on the Baltic Sea. The highest was the catastrophic storm flood of the Baltic Sea in 1872 with an average water height of 2.43 m above sea level in Warnemünde and a maximum of 2.83 m above sea level in Warnemünde and 3.12 m at Holnis . This flood of 3.30 meters above sea level washed over the dunes on East Rügen, in Lobbe , Thiessow , Groß and Klein Zicker on Mönchgut 50 houses were destroyed or seriously damaged. In Neuendorf on Hiddensee only 4 of 57 houses were spared.

The last very severe flood events were in 1904 with 1.88 m, 1913 with 1.89 m, in January 1954 with 1.73 m, on 2-4. November 1995 with 1.68 m and on February 21, 2002 with 1.65 m mean water height above sea level. There were still violent storm floods in 1904, 1913/14, 1957, 1968 and 1971 with over 1.14 meters above sea level, and in 1993 there was such a storm flood.

Between 1950 and 2000, around 110 storm floods occurred in Warnemünde, an average of a little more than two per year.

History (before 1872)

Historical flood events are the All Saints Flood in 1304 and others in 1320, 1449, 1625, 1694, 1784 and 1825. Little is known about their extent.

  • A flood was mentioned in chronicles for Rügen as early as 1044.
  • According to legend, the city of Vineta on the Baltic Sea fell victim to a storm flood in the 12th century.
  • The All Saints Flood on All Saints Day (November 1st) 1304 affected the southwestern Baltic Sea coast , especially the Western Pomerania region. Parts of the Mönchgut on Rügen were torn away, the "new low" is said to have come about.
  • The history of the town of Wismar records a severe flood of water on December 3, 1374.
  • In the local chronicle of Rerik , but also in that of Travemünde , the great storm surge on February 10, 1625 is reported.

Highest water levels in Warnemünde

In Warnemünde the water level has been measured and recorded regularly since 1872. The following highs occurred in meters above normal mean water level, the highest of which are recorded here according to their height:

  1. on 12./13. November 1872 at 2.70 m (2.43 m according to the older measurement method) - the highest storm flood since records began
  2. on December 31, 1913: 1.91 m
  3. on December 31, 1904: 1.90 m
  4. on January 4, 1954: 1.72 m
  5. on January 2, 2019: 1.66 m
  6. on November 1, 2006: 1.65 m
  7. on 3rd / 4th November 1995: 1.60 m
  8. on February 21, 2002: 1.58 m

It should be noted that Warnemünde is in the "slipstream" of Rügen during storm floods from the northeast. In 1995 that made a difference of about 40 centimeters to the coasts of Usedom and Rügen.

literature

  • Heinz Kiecksee, P. Thran, H. Kruhl: The Ostseesturmflut 1872. Westholst. VA, Heide, December 1984 (Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 2), ISBN 3-8042-0116-4
  • Marcus Petersen, Hans Rohde: Storm surge. The great floods on the coasts of Schleswig-Holstein and in the Elbe. Neumünster 1977

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ikzm-d.de
  2. ^ A b Lehmann, Meyer: Rügen AZ . Wähmann-Verlag, Schwerin 1976, p. 89
  3. ↑ Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency: Storm surges in the southern Baltic Sea, 2005, pages 6,9,10,18,19.
  4. ^ Weiss, D .: Protection of the Baltic Sea coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: Kramer, J. u. H. Rohde: Historical coastal protection: dyke construction, island protection and inland drainage on the North and Baltic Seas, pp. 536–567. Stuttgart: Wittwer; quoted in ikzm-d.de