A new water-level monitoring station at Breezy Point Beach and Campground is now collecting real-time tidal data as Calvert County works to improve its response to high-tide flooding and coastal storms.
The University of Maryland’s Hydronet program installed the research-grade station July 23 at the county-owned waterfront property. The project responds to a recommendation in Calvert County’s 2025 High Tide Flood Mitigation Plan to expand monitoring in vulnerable coastal communities.
The station uses a noncontact sensor to measure changes in water level and transmit the information to Hydronet’s online data network. The system is intended to provide local officials, emergency managers and residents with more immediate information during high tides, storm surge and other flooding events.
Hydronet describes its mission as strengthening water-level monitoring throughout the Chesapeake Bay region through a cost-effective and scalable sensor network. The University of Maryland-led project receives support from the university’s Grand Challenges program and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, known as MARACOOS.
The Breezy Point installation addresses a documented gap in Calvert County’s existing monitoring network. The county’s high-tide flooding plan says Calvert County has one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide gauge, located in Solomons. Breezy Point is more than 20 miles from that station, according to the project announcement.
Calvert County’s plan identifies Breezy Point and neighboring Neeld Estates as high-risk waterfront communities along the Chesapeake Bay and Plum Point Creek. The plan says Breezy Point contains 23 flood-vulnerable structures, while Neeld Estates contains 45.
Both communities sit on a high water table, and many homes were built before floodplain regulations adopted in 1984, according to the county plan. Flooding may be driven by tidal water from the Chesapeake Bay and worsened by stormwater moving down steep slopes west of the communities.
The plan says the area can experience extensive flooding during nor’easters, tropical storms and hurricanes. Heavy or prolonged rainfall, particularly when combined with high tides, can also produce mild to moderate flooding.
Real-time measurements from Breezy Point could help officials make faster decisions about road closures, emergency operations and public warnings. A continuous record may also help document damage to docks, piers, shoreline defenses and other coastal infrastructure.
The collected data could support future applications for hazard-mitigation grants or disaster declarations by providing a record of water levels during damaging storms. It may also help planners distinguish tidal flooding from flooding caused primarily by rainfall, a challenge identified in the county’s mitigation plan.
Hydronet cautions that its information is provided for research and informational purposes. The program says observations may be preliminary, corrected later or temporarily unavailable, and should not be used as the sole source for emergency decisions.
The Breezy Point installation was supported by the Calvert County Division of Emergency Management, the Calvert Soil Conservation District and MARACOOS.
Hydronet plans to install additional sensors across the Chesapeake Bay region in the coming weeks. The broader network is intended to improve flood-risk alerts and provide more localized measurements in communities that do not have nearby federal tide gauges.
Current readings and historical data from Hydronet stations are available through the project’s online portal. The system reports water levels relative to Mean Lower Low Water, a local tidal reference based on the average of the lower low tides observed over a long period.
Hydronet notes that a reading in feet above Mean Lower Low Water does not represent water depth, ground elevation or elevation under the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 without a separate conversion.
More information about the project is available at hydronet.umd.edu. Live readings are available at hydronet.umd.edu/live-data-page/.
