Wave Gauge Deployment for Hurricane Florence

On September 11-12, or about 2-3 days before Hurricane Florence’s landfall in North Carolina, our PhD student Johnathan Woodruff joined Spencer Rogers (UNC-Wilmington, NC Sea Grant) to deploy wave gauges in Wrightsville and Topsail Beaches. The following video shows a time lapse of a deployment on a pile-supported structure in North Topsail Beach:

The goal, locations, and a few pictures of the wave gauge deployment are included below.

One goal of this deployment is to collect data about how the waves and storm surge are attenuated across the barrier islands. So Spencer and Johnathan deployed the wave gauges in transects, starting at the beach and then extending across the island and toward the waterway or sound. They deployed 10 gauges in three transects, with locations shown below:


The data collected from these gauges will be combined with a larger deployment from the USGS. Please see the following pictures from Spencer and Johnathan’s deployment:

Spencer Rogers attaching a wave gauge on Florida Avenue in Topsail Beach.

Johnathan Woodruff showing the successful deployment of a wave gauge at the Sea Vista Motel in Topsail Beach.

Spencer and Johnathan deploying a wave gauge at the Sea Vista Motel in Topsail Beach.

Another view of a wave gauge deployment.

Panoramic view of beach conditions on September 12, about two days before landfall of Hurricane Florence.

Thank you to Andrew Kennedy (University of Notre Dame) for providing the wave gauges, and thank you to Spencer Rogers for providing the opportunity for Johnathan. Stay tuned for the post-storm recovery of the gauges!