New Jersey Tide Network

The National Ocean Service (NOS) adequately covers tidal data collection on the ocean and large bays, but in New Jersey little to no data was available for the back-bay areas. The back bays behave quite differently than the ocean due to the complex interaction between the winds and the geometry of the inlets and bays. A slow moving Nor’easter can keep tide levels in back bays several feet higher than the ocean by not allowing tides to recede resulting in flooding of bridges and causeways that link the barrier islands to the mainland.

New Jersey’s back-bay communities annually face the risk of catastrophic flooding from hurricanes and coastal storms. Weather forecasters, along with emergency management and transportation officials, require comprehensive and timely tide-level and meteorological data to make accurate flood forecasts and to plan and execute coastal hazard mitigation strategies. These strategies include coastal evacuation, multi-agency coordination, contingency plans and drills, zoning and building code recommendations, and proper design of physical structures, roads, and bridges.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), designed and installed the New Jersey Tide Network (NJTN), formerly known as the New Jersey Tide Telemetry System (NJTTS), with assistance from NOS. This system is part of a statewide network of tide gages, weather stations, and stream gages collecting invaluable data in real time. The NJTTS supplies real-time tide-level and meteorological data for flood-prone areas along the New Jersey shore and back bays to critical decision-making centers and the publically-available world wide web.

The USGS New Jersey Water Science Center is responsible for overall project coordination along with operation and maintenance of all instrumentation and remote data-collection platforms.

Fact Sheet 2007-3064

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Datum of gages listed in the table below is at 0.00 ft NAVD of 1988.