Last week, Januari 3th, a severe northwest storm blew the water from the Nord Sea in the direction of Belgium, the Netherlands and especially right into the Scheldt Estuary. This results into a sharp increase of the high tide level. However, when such an event coincides with spring tide, which was the case on January the 3th, the water level can rise to astonishing heights. When a critical level is reached defined by: average high tide +1.5 m it is called a storm surge. It is a once in 10 years event which happened now again.
In earlier times this feared combination often resulted in broken dikes and inundated terrain. Remember the extreme flood of February 1, 1953. This distaster was the start of the mega delta plan in the Netherlands resulting in much higher and stronger dikes and 5 storm surge barriers among which the Eastern Scheldt barrier is the most famous.
For the first time in history, all 5 barriers were closed, last Wednesday, because very high water levels were expected. On the Western Scheldt however, there is no such barrier because accessibility to port of Antwerp has to be guaranteed. So here in Terneuzen, we can still experience this event. The pano was shot during strong gusts about half an hour after the highest water level was reached which was about 10 to 15 cm higher than on the pano. Even so, the fixed parts of the bridges to the pontoons were still submerged which normally doesn't happen.
Some figures: astronomical (normal) high tide at Terneuzen on January 3th was calculated +2.97 m NAP while +3.95 to +3.97 m was expected and +3.97 m was effectively reached , so an additional 1 m due to the storm. NAP stands for Nieuw Amsterdams Peil which is the zero reference plane in the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries. TAW is the reference plane in Belgium which is 2.33 m below NAP.
Astronomical tide at Terneuzen fluctuates between -2.30 m and +3.10 m NAP but a spring tide above 3 m NAP is reached only a few days a year.
During the catastrophic night of Januari 31- Februari 1, 1953, the water level at Vlissingen rose to a record high of + 4.55 m NAP, so likely a bit higher in Terneuzen like always. Today everything went well. Kudos to the Netherlands that built strong and safe dikes.
Canon Eos M6 with EF-M 18-150 mm, 12 pics, 29 mm (46.4 mm KB), iso 250, f 5.6, 1/250, free hand, PTGuiPro, 28003x3134 px 353.7 MB TIFF, no crop, 4468x500 px 1.4 MB JPEG. This was one of the most difficult panos I made not only because of the severe gusts but also because the many floating objects moved up, down or sideways making stitching without errors a real challenge.
Hans-Jürgen Bayer, Jörg Braukmann, Hans-Jörg Bäuerle, Friedemann Dittrich, Walter Huber, Heinz Höra, Martin Kraus, Giuseppe Marzulli, Jörg Nitz, Jan Lindgaard Rasmussen, Björn Sothmann, Jens Vischer
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