"Graham Easterling" wrote:

Accurate and consistent forecasts from the Met Office helped the
Environment Agency and emergency services take decisive action, after
England's east coast experienced one of the highest storm surges and
tides for several decades.


Interesting to see that although this event keeps getting compared
with 1953, the MetO's own press release shows the highest water ODN
was significantly lower than in 1983, so it was in fact the highest
tide for 2 decades. Lucky it didn't happen during the large Springs of
2 weeks ago though.

The weasel words here are "one of the". It was probably one of
the 50 biggest storm surges since 1953, and it may have been
one of the 20 biggest. There have been several since 1983,
notably in Feb 1992 and Feb 1996. My memory for these things
is less good the nearer we get to the present.

Philip