Statistics of Extreme Storm Surges in Eastern Canadian Waterbodies

Storm surges in some eastern Canadian waterbodies, namely the Atlantic and Labrador coasts, the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence estuary were studied with particular emphasis on understanding the extreme surges, i.e. both positive and negative. These extreme surges could be explained in terms of the topography of the waterbody, location of a given tide station with reference to storm tracks, fresh water discharge from rivers and the presence of ice cover in winter months. The method of study used is a statistical analysis of the hourly tidal records for selected storm surge episodes during the period 1965 to 1975.