Storm Surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tide.

Storm Tide is the water level rise during a storm due to the combination of storm surge and the astronomical tide.

Storm surge inundation refers to the storm surge as height above ground level. For the SLOSH model, this is done by subtracting the average elevation of each grid cell from the water level computed by the model referenced to a vertical datum. This helps alleviate confusion inherent in past use of surge above an abstract geophysical reference level.