The impact of meteorology on modelling storm surges in the Adriatic Sea

A 1/12° by 1/12° two-dimensional, hydrodynamic tide–surge model for the Mediterranean Sea is used to model two storm surge events in the Adriatic Sea. The impact of meteorological forcing on the model results is investigated using three different sources of data: observations obtained from the UK Meteorological Office, operational analysis model data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and a local area model for the Adriatic region obtained from Agenzia Regionale Prevenzione e Ambiente dellʹEmilia-Romagna, Italy. Two surge events are studied, one under conditions of bora wind (December 1995) and the other for a sirocco wind (November 1997). The model results are compared to hourly data from tide gauges in the northern Adriatic Sea. The three meteorological forcing fields produce storm surge elevations with generally similar behaviour but which differ from each other by up to 60 cm in height. The results obtained by using the UK Meteorological Office data were generally better than those obtained by using either of the two sets of meteorological model data. The model results give periods of 21.3, 11.6, 7.3 and 5.6 h for the Adriatic Sea seiches that are produced by the excitation of the fundamental longitudinal oscillation.