Storm surges represent a threat to low-lying coastal areas. In the aftermath of severe events, it is often discussed whether the events were unusual. Such information is not readily available from observations but needs contextualization with long-term statistics. An approach that provides such information in near real time was developed and implemented for the German coast. It is shown that information useful for public and scientific debates can be provided in near real time.

In this study, categories, dimensions and criteria for evaluating regional climate services are derived by a participatory approach with potential service users at the German Baltic Sea coast. The results show that stakeholders do mainly address other components than those found in the literature. This might indicate that an evaluation, following solely literature-based (non-participative) components, is not sufficient to localize deficiencies or efficiencies within a regional climate service.