The aim of the study was to estimate the frequency and strength of storm surges in the Oder River mouth area during the 1993/94–2016/17 seasons. The analyses involved water level readings recorded at gauges located in the Oder River mouth area, including the coasts of the Pomeranian Bay (Zatoka Pomorska) and the Szczecin Lagoon (Zalew Szczeciński), as well as the downstream reach of the Oder. Recognition of temporal and spatial water level variations in the region under investigation revealed signicant irregularities in storm surge occurrence; periods with an increased frequency of surges followed long periods with their scant occurrence. During the year, most of the storm events were observed between November and January. In the period discussed, the most severe and extensive storm surge in the Oder River mouth area was observed in October 2009. Very high surges were recorded in November 1995, January 2012, and January 2017. The long-lasting and extensive high water events in the downstream reach of Oder River resulted from the progressive and prolonged increase in sea level in the Pomeranian Bay. Long-term persistence of high water levels in the Oder River mouth area were also registered when storm surges limited the outflow of the Oder River during snow-melt events, ice jams developing on the lower Oder at the same time. Finally, severe storm events were observed under the condition of the increased water volume in the Baltic Sea.
Limestone and sandstone beds deposited by storms are called tempestites, and exhibit much variation in thickness, grain size and internal structures, depending on the proximity and on the intensity of the storm waves. In this paper, diagnostic features of storm beds observed in thin sections, was presented. Characteristic features are investigated on the basis of detailed study in the Upper Devonian carbonates in the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland).
Extreme sea levels – storm-generated surges and falls – on the Polish coast are usually the effects of three components: the volume of water in the southern Baltic (the initial level preceding a given extreme situation), the action of tangential wind stresses in the area (wind directions: whether shore- or seaward; wind velocities; and wind action duration), and the sea surface deformation produced by deep, mesoscale baric lows moving rapidly over the southern and central Baltic that generate the so-called baric wave. Among these factors, the baric wave is particularly important for, i.e. the water cushion underneath the baric depression, moving along the actual atmospheric pressure system over the sea surface.