Statistical analysis of Mediterranean coastal storms

Coastal storms as extreme hydrometeorological events have severe impacts on the coasts and consequently affect the coastal communities, attracting considerable research interest nowadays. Attempting to understand the risk of these extreme events, a coastal storm analysis is accomplished by studying the parameters which define a coastal storm and their properties, such as the wave height, the wave period, the duration, the calm period, and the storm energy. The frequency of occurrence of coastal storms, the thresholds of storm parameters and the way they are interrelating with each other draw a rough outline of wave climate during coastal storm events for a specific location. This information is valuable afterwards for the design of coastal structures and the coastal zone management. In this work, buoy datasets from 30 locations in the Mediterranean Sea are analysed for describing coastal storm activity. A sample of 4008 coastal storms is identified. Each location faces around 10-14 coastal storms per year, with most of them to occur in winter months and their characteristics to be site-dependent. Their average duration is lower than 30 hours, and 25% of them are consecutive events which hit the same location in less than a day. Furthermore, the wave period and the main direction present no remarkable fluctuations during a coastal storm. With this analysis, a deeper understanding of coastal storm severity is pursued, gaining knowledge about their past activity, in order to be prepared in the future and to protect the coastal areas. (C) 2020 Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

Coastal storms, as extreme hydrometeorological events, have significant impacts on coastal areas and communities, attracting considerable research interest. Analyzing parameters such as wave height and duration helps outline wave climate during these events. In the Mediterranean region, an average of 10-14 coastal storms occur annually, mostly in winter months, with short durations and 25% being consecutive events.