Recent meteorological tsunamis and other anomalous tidal surge events in western Europe

We explore instances of unusual long-wave activity of meteorological origin along the coastal waters of north-west Europe during the summer of 2022. These events include meteorological tsunamis, i.e. waves in the tsunami frequency band originated by sharp atmospheric pressure variations and amplified by multiple resonant effects, and wind-generated infragravity waves which can trigger local seiches in enclosed basins and harbours

Anomalous "tidal surges" were observed on 18 June 2022 in Wales, followed by similar occurrences in Ireland, France, and Spain. Additionally, several anomalous long-wave events were reported in south England and Wales on the morning of 19 July 2022. Our investigation involved analysing surface and high-altitude air pressure fields, as well as sea level oscillations for both days.

We determine that the events on 18 June were a series of meteorological tsunamis, spreading across several western European countries and initiated by localised pressure disturbances originating within a low-pressure system over the North Atlantic Ocean. A local examination of the southern coast of Ireland suggests that Proudman resonance played a key role in amplifying the meteotsunami as it travelled eastward in the afternoon of 18 June. Similarly, our analysis of the events on 19 July indicates that the tidal surge observed in the UK and anomalous signals recorded in Ireland and France were likely instances of seiching triggered by infragravity waves. We conducted numerical simulations of the 18 June event using Volna-OP2, which solves the non-linear shallow water equations employing a finite volume discretisation technique. We also examined the influence of atmospheric wave velocity on the amplification of sea surface elevation.