Why parts of Florida are so vulnerable to storm surge
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — As Hurricane Milton approaches the west coast of Florida, storm surge is an especially big concern. One of the reasons for this is slope of the ocean floor.
As of Wednesday morning, the storm is forecast to make landfall south of the Tampa area near Sarasota late Wednesday night. In this part of Florida, the ocean depth gradually decreases away from the coast. There are other parts of the Florida coast and other parts of the costal United States where the ocean floor has a much sharper drop-off.
So how does the slope of the ocean floor affect storm surge? During a hurricane, storm surge is flooding triggered by the wind pushing ocean water onto land.
Image a scenario in which the wind from a hurricane is pushing water into a coastal area that has a steep ocean floor. It would be harder for the water to make it over the steep rise onto the land.
Unfortunately, the ocean floor in the Tampa Bay area has a much more gentle drop-off. This makes it much easier for the wind to push the water onto the land as you can see below.
In addition to the gentle slope of the ocean floor, this part of Florida also has numerous canals and waterways, some of which are densely populated. That will likely make the impact of the storm surge even more devastating.
The Tampa area is expecting storm surge up to 13 feet.
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