Modeling extreme water levels in the Salish Sea: The importance of including remote sea level anomalies for application in hydrodynamic simulations

Extreme water-level recurrence estimates for a complex estuary using a high-resolution 2D model and a new method for estimating remotely generated sea level anomalies (SLAs) at the model boundary have been developed. The hydrodynamic model accurately resolves the dominant physical processes contributing to extreme water levels across the Washington State waters of the Salish Sea, including the relative contribution of remote SLA and other non-tidal residual processes that drive extreme water levels above the predicted tide. The model’s predictions have errors of less than 15 cm (