Most severe negative surges on the southern Baltic Sea coast 
37 
——Wismar —•—Warnemünde Sassnitz » Swinoujscie — —Kotobrzeg MSL 
Fig. 5.5. b Variations of sea level decrease during the storm of 5 to 6 December 1965 
5.6. October 1967 
Meteorological situation 
A depression approaching from the Atlantic 
Ocean reached the southwestern coast of Ireland 
on 16 October at 18 UTC. On 17 October, the 
deepening low moved rapidly across the British 
Isles and the North Sea toward Denmark and 
southern Sweden, where it slowed down consid 
erably and reached the lowest value of 967 hPa 
in its centre. Before midnight on 17 October, a 
rapid intrusion of frosty Arctic air caused the 
centre to move fast in the direction of the White 
Sea, where it arrived on 18 October around noon 
(Fig. 5.6. a). 
In the afternoon and night of 17 October, when 
the centre was almost stationary over the 
Kattegat and southern Sweden, a very strong 
westerly to southwesterly storm of 8-9 Bft, and 
of 10 Bft in places, developed over the eastern 
North Sea and the southwestern basins of the 
Baltic Sea. Behind the occluded front, the storm 
veered northwest in the early hours of 18 October, 
without calming during the next several hours. 
Hydrological response of sea level 
On 17 October, sea levels on the southwestern 
Baltic Sea coast oscillated slightly above the 
mean value. Around noon, water levels dropped 
first in the Wismar Bay, which is the area most 
sensitive to the impact of gale-force offshore 
winds. Water levels began to fall steadily at a rate 
of initially about 10 cm/hour, later 10-15 cm/hour. 
A less regular rate of decrease was recorded at 
the other water level gauges. Kotobrzeg was the 
last station to record failing water levels on this 
part of the coast, with values remaining above 
500 cm until the warm sector had passed east, 
and westerly (alongshore) winds had backed SW, 
partly S, at about 21 UTC. This forced a rapid 
drop of sea levels in this area. Minimum levels 
were recorded just after midnight on 18 October. 
Between 01 and 04 UTC, as the occlusion was 
moving east, the hurricane-like storm veered 
rapidly NW. On the occluded front, however, the 
storm still came from southerly directions, caus 
ing water levels to drop at particularly rapid rates: 
rates of decrease were as high as about 40 cm/h 
in Sassnitz, and about 50 cm/h in Kotobrzeg and 
Swinoujscie. 
The lowest minima were as follows: Warnemünde 
332 cm, Wismar 334 cm, Swinoujscie 366 cm, 
Sassnitz 380 cm, and Kotobrzeg 410 cm. 
The severity of the storm, now coming from NW-N, 
caused sea levels to start rising again immedi 
ately at high rates and, at the eastern gauges, to 
compensate the difference of more than 1.5 m in 
5-7 hours.