Sea level rise: Mesmerizing tool from NOAA lets you watch it happen in Delaware

If you've ever wondered just what sea level rise would mean for your area — and if you own land in a coastal state like Delaware, you probably have — there's an engrossing online tool available that will let you look at projected flooding in detail. 

The tool is available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. You can click on the map below or open the viewer in a new window: https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/slr/0/-8491222.621116523/4648808.124842697/8/satellite/none/0.8/2050/interHigh/midAccretion. 

The viewer lets you raise the sea level from the current mean high water to see what would happen if it were anywhere from 1-10 feet higher. 

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According to NASA, current projections for sea level rise by 2100 are from a little over half a foot to 6.6 feet. If it's the latter, the coastline of the Delmarva Peninsula would be a soggy disaster. 

The sea level rise would vary depending on how ice sheets reacted to the warming. 

The tool from NOAA lets you easily visualize what sea level rise would mean for your community, and even view what some local landmarks would look like at different levels of water. It also projects areas that could turn into marshland, and charts which communities would be most vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise. 

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Some of the most dramatic coastal changes on Delmarva shown in the viewer are on the west side of the peninsula in Virginia and the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. But that doesn't mean the effects on Delaware's beach communities and Ocean City would be mild. 

The tool does not take erosion into account, either, a factor that could dramatically change the effects in some areas, depending on the impact of storms for example.

NOAA offers detailed information on its website on how it made the projections and how to understand the map.  

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