Flooding At Jersey Shore Could Become More Prevalent, NOAA Report Finds

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Rising seas could mean more coastal flooding at the Jersey shore. That's according to a new federal report on nuisance flooding.

Nuisance flooding, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is sunny day flooding triggered by high tides. But in recent decades it's also a result of sea rise, as the polar ice caps melt and the oceans warm.

"It used to take a huge storm or a hurricane to cause even minor flooding," said CBS3 Meteoorologist Katie Fehlinger. "Over time, though, that level has really gone up."

The NOAA report says coastal towns in the Mid-Atlantic could see a 10-to-20-percent increase in nuisance flooding. Fehlinger says nuisance flooding is anything that is an inconvenience.

"When we talk about nuisance flooding, it's really anything that inconveniences you: a road closure, a storm drain that's overflowing that you've got to navigate around," Fehlinger explained. "With time that kind of flooding can deteriorate some infrastructure certainly."

The information has been collected by the federal government since the 1950s, but Fehlinger says, the numbers have gone up. In 1950, there were three recorded days of nuisance flooding. Last year, there were 28.

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