As the waters of Hurricane Sandy rose higher and higher on Oct. 29, 2012, an instrument on a pier at Sandy Hook, N.J., recorded the ominous tidal surge. The reading hit eight feet above sea level, then nine, then 10 – and every few minutes, the gauge faithfully transmitted its readings to a satellite flying overhead.

The reading was closing in on 11 feet above mean sea level when the transmissions suddenly stopped.

The waves of the mighty storm had smashed the government-owned instrument to bits at the moment it was needed most, with the mid-Atlantic shoreline being slammed by a record tidal surge. That was the latest example of a problem that had been plaguing oceanographers and climate scientists for the better part of a decade.

Accurate tidal readings are crucial to understanding individual storms, as well as the long-term risks associated with the rise of the sea. Yet in 2005, when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, and again in 2012 with Sandy, the tide gauges that are supposed to record storm surges proved vulnerable themselves.