Tropical cyclone-driven storm surge and wave database for the US North Atlantic and Gulf coastlines
Historical datasets of tropical cyclone-driven storm surge and waves at moderate coastal resolution are scarce, limiting coastal hazard analysis and AI/ML-based surrogate model development where field observations remain sparse. We present a publicly available hindcast database of surge and wave conditions for 232 U.S. landfalling and impactful storms (1981-2021). We applied the coupled ADCIRC+SWAN system across the entire U.S. North Atlantic and Gulf coastline on a coastal-refined unstructured mesh achieving practical nearshore resolution (~100 - 500 m) for computational feasibility. We forced simulations with parametric wind fields from the Generalized Asymmetric Holland Model fitted to NOAA best-track data. For each event, we provide hourly NetCDF files containing water-surface elevation, significant wave height, and peak wave period. Users can apply these fields as boundary conditions for higher-resolution local models, train ML model predictors, and conduct coastwide extreme-value analyses. We validated simulations against numerous NOAA tide gauges and NDBC buoys, demonstrating robust water level skill with documented wave biases. This comprehensive basin-scale database enables coastal flood hazard assessment across multiple decades of historical storm surge events.
Authors
- W. Brent Daniel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7398-6796)
- Mithun Deb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8898-3096)
- Karthik Balaguru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0181-2687)
- Tim McPherson
- Julian Rice (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3253-7833)
Institutions
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Medical Research Associates (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Data
- Published
- 2026-06-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07635-z
- Primary Topic
- Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00