New York Bight

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A colorized depiction of the Hudson Canyon and New York Bight.

The New York Bight is a large gulf on the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of North America in the northeastern United States. It is formed by the coastal identation between New Jersey and Long Island around the mouth of the Hudson River at New York Harbor. The sea floor of the bight consists largely of continental shelf and includes the Hudson Canyon, an undersea Pleistocene submarine canyon, probably from the extension of the Hudson River during the ice ages, when the sea level was lower. The bight includes major shipping channels that access New York Harbor. The coastal climate of the gulf is temperate as the result of direct contact from the Gulf Stream along the coast of North America. The Jersey Shore and the coast of Long Island are popular summer recreational spots for the region.

The geography of the bight is such that the coast makes a nearly right angle bend at the mouth of the Hudson. This feature has long been of major concern to meteorologists in the study of tropical storm patterns along the east coast, and is one of the primary reasons why the New York Metropolitan Area is considered a high danger zone for storm generated ocean-water surges, despite its northerly latitude. Specifically, in the presence of a hurricane off the coast of New Jersey, the easterly cyclonic winds along the northern edge of the storm could drive a strong surge to the west, laterally along the southern coast of Long Island and straight into Lower New York Bay. The angle bend of the New Jersey coast would leave little outlet for the surge, leading to widespread flooding throughout New York City, especially along the southern coast of Staten Island and Manhattan; storm surges of up to 30 feet (9.1 m) have been predicted.^[who?]