Analyses of the multi-year wind and sea level records on the West Florida Shelf show that although the along-shelf wind is important in changing the coastal sea level, the across-shelf wind is not negligible. For the winds observed over the mid shelf, the direction having the highest coherence with the coastal sea level is in the along-shelf, but that inducing the largest coastal sea level response is in a direction between the purely along- and purely across-shelf directions. Near the coast, the across-shelf wind component is more important. The directions of the coastal winds having the highest correlation and the largest coastal sea level response are the same, i.e., in a direction 30~40° clockwise from the along-shelf direction.