Abstract. Offshore energy infrastructure, including the petroleum and wind energy
sectors, are susceptible to damage and interruption by extreme meteorological
events. In northwest Europe and especially the North Sea, these extreme
meteorological events are mostly associated with severe storms in the autumn
and winter seasons. In the North Sea, storm surges have an impact on the
offshore energy sector mainly from the flooding of port facilities and from
strong ocean currents causing extra structural loading and bottom scouring.
Storm Britta on 31 October–1 November 2006 was an important North Sea storm
with a high surge along the coast of the Netherlands and Germany and a
significant number of high wave reports. The paper presents an analysis of
the national tide gauge records of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,
Germany, and Denmark to spectrally isolate and reconstruct time series
components corresponding to the storm surge, semi-diurnal tide, and short
period contribution. The semi-diurnal tides and storm surge during Storm
Britta are tracked counter-clockwise around the North Sea from Scotland to
northern Denmark. The storm surge was remarkable for its pronounced peak in
the coastal area between the Netherlands and Germany with no precedent in the
∼100 year measurement record. The short period component of the tide
gauge records show large oscillations during the height of the storm that may
correspond with reports of unusually high waves at nearby coastal locations.