The Great Stour Project - River and Coastal Flooding

Meteorological Background

The devastating floods of 1953 were the result of a combination of factors producing an effect known as a storm surge, during which water is driven against a coastline resulting in exceptionally high tides.

Tidal records at Southend show the 1953 sea level to be the highest since measurement began in 1911. The frequency of an event of this magnitude is estimated to be once in a thousand years.

The exceptionally high sea level was caused by a deep depression which tracked over the Shetland Islands before turning south-east into the North Sea. The low atmospheric pressure, 976 millibars at the centre, caused the level of the sea to rise by perhaps as much as 0.5 metres.

The associated gale force winds, blowing from the north over a fetch exceeding 2000 kilometres, produced storm waves over 6 metres in height. This caused water to pile up in the southern part of the North Sea.

The geography and topography of the North Sea, becoming both narrower and shallower toward the south, also contributed to the exceptionally high water levels along the east coast of England.

The storm also coincided with spring tides and high fluvial discharges into the North Sea to produce tides over 3 metres above the normal level in the Thames estuary and along the north Kent coast.

Weather chart from David Waugh, “Geography: An Integrated Approach” reproduced with  kind permission of Thomas Nelson and Sons.