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Contributed by Chris Landsea

No. Many people assume that the partial vacuum at the center of a tropical cyclone allows the ocean to rise up in response, thus causing the destructive storm surges as the cyclone makes landfall. However, this effect would be with a 900 mb central pressure tropical cyclone, for example, only 1 m (3 ft). The total storm surge for a tropical cyclone of this intensity can be from 6 to 10 m (19 to 33 ft), or more. Most (>85%) of the storm surge is caused by winds pushing the ocean surface ahead of the storm on the right side of the track (left side of the track in the Southern Hemisphere).

Since the surface pressure gradient (from the tropical cyclone center to the environmental conditions) determines the wind strength, the central pressure indirectly does indicate the height of the storm surge, but not directly. Note also that individual storm surges are dependent upon the coastal topography, angle of incidence of landfall, speed of tropical cyclone motion as well as the wind strength.