*3.4. Wave Storm Severity*

Several parameters have been suggested in the literature to assess the severity of wave storms. The Storm Power Index [26] was introduced as the product of the squared maximum value of *Hm*<sup>0</sup> during the storm and its duration. Clearly, this parameter overestimates the storm severity by considering only the maximum of *Hm*<sup>0</sup> during the storm. Accordingly, an integral parameter to quantify the total wave power, *TWP*, has been proposed [27] and can be expressed as

$$WP = \int\_{t\_i}^{t\_f} H\_{\text{m0}}^2(t)dt \approx \Delta t \sum\_{t\_1}^{t\_2} H\_{\text{m0}}^2 \tag{1}$$

where *ti* and *tf* are the starting and ending times of the storm event, so that the storm duration, *D*, is given by *D = (tf* − *ti*).

It is interesting to remark that *TWP* is a function of the storm duration and therefore does not allow comparison of the severity of storms with different lengths. To this end, it is appealing to standardize this value with respect to *D* to obtain the storm energy [28], denoted as *E* and given by

$$E = \frac{1}{D} \int\_{t\_i}^{t\_f} H\_{m0}^2(t)dt \approx \frac{\Delta t}{D} \sum\_{t\_1}^{t\_2} H\_{m0}^2 \tag{2}$$
