Storm surges in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract Estimates of the surge generated by a model storm impinging on three coastal areas of north Bay of Bengal are presented. A linear shallow‐water long‐wave model was used to evaluate the surge. Surge amplitudes were computed for different values of storm intensity and speed. The effect of the astronomical tide was estimated by specifying initial boundary conditions on the open boundary of the computational grid. For a devastating storm, which struck Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) on 12/13 November 1970, we show that superposition of the surge on the tide leads to an overestimate of sea level elevation at the time of landfall.