CO-OPS water level stations across coastal U.S. states and territories provide annual exceedance probability levels for extreme high and low water events. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration produced this dataset by analyzing historical data from stations with at least 30 years of records. The statistical analysis focuses on storm tides, excluding wave runup and tsunami peaks.
Use Cases
- Evaluate current coastal conditions for rare events based on real-time station data and exceedance probability levels.
- Assess coastal hazard risk for planning based on the probability that water levels will exceed a given elevation.
- Support navigational safety planning by understanding the likelihood of extreme low water levels.
- Inform ecosystem management strategies using statistical data on extreme water level frequencies.
Strengths
- Analysis is based on stations with at least 30 years of data, providing a long-term statistical foundation.
- Product distinguishes between storm tides (surge + tide) and other phenomena like wave runup, clarifying its scope.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific CO-OPS station network.
Provenance
- Source
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
- Collection Method
- Statistical analysis of historical extremely high and low water levels from CO-OPS tide gauges.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-17 19:40:37.437604; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Coastal United States, territories, and associated ocean regions (Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean).