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Knowing Your Elevation
By Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D.

Director of Meteorology, Weather Underground, Inc.

If you live near the coast, or are thinking of buying property near the coast, i
t's very much in your financial and survival interests to know exactly what elev
ation your home is at. If you are a home owner, your flood insurance certificate
should tell you what your elevation is, based on the best available USGS survey
s for the area. In some cases, though, this information is not very precise. For
example, in the New York City area, elevations as of 2008 on USGS topographic m
aps were only surveyed to an accuracy of 10 feet (Figure 1). Along the Hudson Ri
ver and some portions of Long Island, the accuracy was only 20 feet. These topog
raphic maps have a considerable error range, too, with 90% of the data rated as
accurate to plus or minus half the contour interval. Thus, this means that 90% o
f the points along a 10-foot contour line lie in the range 5 - 15 feet. This is
a pretty broad range if you're trying to judge your vulnerability to a storm sur
ge. Efforts are being made in many areas to perform high-resolution mapping usin
g laser measurements from aircraft combined with GPS. These data sets generally
have an accuracy of 0.15 meters (six inches), but the data is limited in coverag
e and difficult to find on the Internet. Probably the best solution is to use ex
isting low-resultion data (3 - 30 meters in the U.S.) and interpolate the data t
o your location. Keep in mind that the errors will often be large using these te
chniques.
Figure 1
Figure 1. The current best available elevation source data (as of August 2008) f
or the USGS National Elevation Dataset over the mid-Atlantic region. Lidar data
typically has an accuracy of 0.15 meters. Image credit: Coastal Sensitivity to S
ea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region report by the U.S. Climate Sci
ence Program.
Sources of Elevation Information
The flood insurance certificate for your property, and even some mortgage docume
nts, should have a surveyed elevation reading. According to Dr. Stephen Baig, re
tired head of NHC's storm surge team, "these are conventionally measured by a pr

ofessional surveyor using government-maintained elevation survey bench marks. ho

se benchmarks are very precise and accurate references provided the ground is st
able and the mark is well anchored. In some areas, the benchmark data are of que
stionable quality. In large, the quality of coastal elevation marks is not good.
That's because they lie on the edges of a network of gauges. Within the network
there is a more-or-less self-correcting phenomenon going on. At the edges the g
auges are out on "spurs", tied to the net by only two other shoreward gauges. No
gauges offshore, either, to help "close" the network. So elevation data right a
t the shoreline, exactly where it matters a great deal to surge calculations, ar
e of questionable quality. The shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, extending from t
he Florida border westward to Brownsville (and into Mexico, too) presents an add
itional elevation problem. It's subsiding, sliding down into the Gulf of Mexico,
headed for the Yucatan. The vertical reference network for this region is destr
oyed. This is absolute change, on top of which there is sea-level rise. The best
that can be done is the real-time kinetic elevation data program established an
d managed by Louisiana Spatial Reference Center (LSRC) Center for Geoinformatics
( http://c4g.lsu.edu/joomla/)". Without their help we would not have the confid
ence we do in the SLOSH calculations for that region".
Hire a surveyor to get an elevation accurate to an inch. Cost: $200 - $500.
High-accuracy lidar data is available at the NOAA Coastal Services Center. I
picked a section for New Smyrna Beach, Florida, then ordered a 7Mb file in .tif
f format that I was able to view using Photoshop. I had to wait about 1/2 hour f
or the file to be prepared. Lidar eleveation data for the entire coast of Florid
a should be available by 2010.
University of Arizona Climate Change and Sea Level interactive tool. The dat
a is taken from the USGS National Elevation Dataset. Accuracy: 3 - 30 meters in
the conterminus U.S., and 30 meters for the rest of the globe. The tool has a ni
ce feature where one can choose how sea level rises of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 meter
s would affect the coast.
Sea Level Rise Explorer by Global Warming Art. Global interactive Google Map
, which lets you zoom down to the street level. Accuracy: 5 - 9 meters. Coverage
: entire globe.
United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset. Accuracy:
3 - 30 meters. A zoomable interactive map lets you click on your location and s
ee the interpolated elevation. Don't be fooled, though, when you click and see a
n elevation of 5.28 feet in a region where the resolution of the data is only 10
meters (1/3 arc second, 33 feet). The real elevation could easily be 1 foot, or
30 feet.
EPA sea level rise pages for the U.S. Atlantic coast. Shows the modeled area
s of elevations below 1.5 meters, and 1.5 - 2.5 meters. No roads are overlaid, s
o it's a bit hard to tell what cities are impacted.
Lesser Accuracy
Google Earth: The best elevation accuracy of Google Earth in the U.S. is 10
meters.
GPS: Global Positioning System (GPS) is not a good choice, since the vertica
l accuracy of most hand-held GPS units for home use is only 15 meters (49 feet).
If you have access to a commercial grade differential GPS system (a minimum of
$5000), one can get an accuracy on the order of a few centimeters.
Weather Underground Storm Surge Articles
Storm Surge Basics
Storm Surge Inundation Maps for the U.S. Coast
General Characteristics of Storm Surges
Storm Surge Survival Misconceptions
A detailed view of the storm surge: Comparing Katrina to Camille
World Storm Surge Records

U.S. Storm Surge Records

Storm Surge Animations of Historical Storms
Hurricane Katrina's Storm Surge
Storm Surge Reduction by Wetlands
Knowing Your Elevation
External Links to Storm Surge Information

Storm Surge Safety Actions

Minimize the distance you must travel to reach a safe location; the further
you drive the higher the likelihood of encountering traffic congestion and other
problems on the roadways.
Select the nearest possible evacuation destination, preferably within your l
ocal area, and map out your route. Do not get on the road without a planned rout
e, or a place to go.
Choose the home of the closest friend or relative outside a designated evacu
ation zone and discuss your plan with them before hurricane season.
You may also choose a hotel/motel outside of the vulnerable area.
If neither of these options is available, consider the closest possible publ
ic shelter, preferably within your local area.
Use the evacuation routes designated by authorities and, if possible, become
familiar with your route by driving it before an evacuation order is issued.
Contact your local emergency management office to register or get informatio
n regarding anyone in your household whom may require special assistance in orde
r to evacuate.
Prepare a separate pet plan, most public shelters do not accept pets.
Prepare your home prior to leaving by boarding up doors and windows, securin
g or moving indoors all yard objects, and turning off all utilities.
Before leaving, fill your car with gas and withdraw extra money from the ATM
.
Take all prescription medicines and special medical items, such as glasses a
nd diapers.
If your family evacuation plan includes an RV, boat or trailer, leave early.
Do not wait until the evacuation order or exodus is well underway to start your
trip.
If you live in an evacuation zone and are ordered to evacuate by state or lo
cal officials, do so as quickly as possible. Do not wait or delay your departure
, to do so will only increase your chances of being stuck in traffic, or even wo
rse, not being able to get out at all.
Expect traffic congestion and delays during evacuations. Expect and plan for
significantly longer travel times than normal to reach your family's intended d
estination.
Stay tuned to a local radio or television station and listen carefully for a
ny advisories or specific instructions from local officials. Monitor your NOAA W

eather Radio.
Source: NOAA
Hurricane Preparedness
National Hurricane Center
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Learn more about hurricane preparedness
Hurricane Resources
Storm Surge
Storm Surge Basics
Storm Surge Inundation Maps for the U.S. Coast
General Characteristics of Storm Surges
Storm Surge Survival Misconceptions
A detailed view of the storm surge: Comparing Katrina to Camille
World Storm Surge Records
U.S. Storm Surge Records
Storm Surge Animations of Historical Storms
Hurricane Katrina's Storm Surge
Storm Surge Reduction by Wetlands
Knowing Your Elevation
External Links to Storm Surge Information
Tropical Storm Outlooks
No Tropical Weather Outlooks available.
Monthly Hurricane Summaries
Atlantic
Eastern Pacific
Tropical Weather Discussions:
No Tropical Weather Discussions available.
Other Tropical Imagery
Atlantic Wind Shear Forecast
Atlantic Pressure/Windfield Analysis
Aircraft Reconnaissance Reports
Aircraft Reconnaissance Plan of the Day
Detailed Vortex Message
Flight Level RECCO reports (decoded)
Supplementary Vortex Message
Dropsonde
Guide to decoding recon reports
Blank Tracking Charts
Atlantic Basin Hurricane Tracking Chart
Atlantic Basin
(1.25 MB Adobe PDF)
Eastern Pacific Basin Hurricane Tracking Chart
Eastern Pacific Basin
(1.13 MB Adobe PDF)

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