Two rare meteotsunamis formed on Lake Michigan in 1 day!

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Two meteotsunamis developed on Lake Michigan during a single day in April and a newly released modeling of them is giving us a look at their evolution. Meteotsunamis are a type of tsunami, but instead of being generated by an underwater earthquake, the source is meteorological, like thunderstorms with their strong winds and their atmospheric pressure change.

meteotsunamis great lakes april 2018, meteotsunami lake michigan 2018
Not one but two meteotsunamis swept across Lake Michigan on April 13, 2018. via GLERL

On April 13, bands of thunderstorms pushing across northern Lake Michigan spurred the development of a pair of meteotsunamis. NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) released a modeling of the meteotsunamis in a tweet Friday. Click the play button below and notice rising water level (orange/red) followed by falling water level (blue) between 43 and 45 degrees north latitude (marked on the left side of the animation). This happens twice in the same general area of the modeled output, and thus indicates that that not only one but two separate meteotsunamis formed in response to storms that moved through the area.

The meteotsunami was caused by those short, extreme bursts of wind and pressure,” said the GLERL. A rapid rise of Lake Michigan’s water level was noted in Ludington, Michigan, where the meteotsumani briefly submerged a breakwater.

GLERL said a gauge in Ludington reported a water level rise of 1.51 feet. It also noted that this measurement was taken in a harbor that was sheltered so the rise could have been higher in the open waters of Lake Michigan.

Impacts from the meteotsunami were minimal, but some docks were damaged from rising and falling water levels in Manistee, Michigan.

Meteotsunamis Can Be Destructive and Deadly

Meteotsunamis are a potentially dangerous hazard on the Great Lakes that can be destructive and deadly. Scientists explained this phenomenon in detail in February at an American Geophysical Union conference in Portland, Oregon.

These are unusually fast changes in water level that can catch people off guard and inundate the coast, damage waterfront property, disrupt maritime activities and create strong currents,” researchers said at the conference.

Thunderstorms, which generate about 80 percent of meteotsunamis, trigger their formation through a rise in wind speed and a pressure change, said Eric Anderson of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. This creates a wave which then moves along with the storm.

Anderson said that if the wave and storm move at the same speed, this can cause it to become larger and potentially destructive. The growth of a meteotsunami can be further intensified as it enters shallower waters.

Meteotsunamis on the Great Lakes

About 100 meteotsunamis occur on the Great Lakes every year, and most are small, according to Anderson. He added that higher, destructive meteotsunamis happen about once per decade, on average.

The impacts from higher-end meteotsunamis are not nearly close to the catastrophic earthquake-induced tsunamis in Japan in 2011 and Indonesia in 2004.

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History of meteotsunamis across the Great Lakes from 1882-2015. via NOAA-GLERL

Lake Michigan and Lake Erie typically have the most frequent meteotsunami activity, according to Dr. Chin Wu, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The large majority of meteotsunami events on the Great Lakes have occurred in the late-spring and summer months, when thunderstorms are most active in that region. Anderson said meteotsunami activity has historically peaked around May and June.

The most recent deadly meteotsunami occurred on the Great Lakes on July 4, 2003. The deaths of seven people in Sawyer, Michigan, were first blamed on rip currents until it was determined a meteotsunami was the cause. Anderson mentioned that several damaging meteotsunamis have occurred since then, including in 2012, 2014 and 2017.

Meteotsunami events can happen when there is no apparent weather danger nearby. Several people were killed in a 1954 meteotsunami on Lake Michigan in Chicago four hours after the weather system triggering the event moved through.

Anderson said that once a meteotsunami is generated it can “refract or reflect off of coastlines“. That may lead to the meteotsunami becoming disassociated from the weather system that led to its formation.

Meteotsunamis are not exclusive to the Great Lakes and occur around the world. The East Coast of the United States sees an average of about 20 meteotsunamis per year (1996-2016), according to Greg Dusek of NOAA. Those events are mostly small, he added.

A higher-end East Coast meteotsunami on June 13, 2013, generated a 6-foot wave that injured three people on a jetty in New Jersey during otherwise calm weather conditions.

Meteotsunamis can kill, so be prepared.

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What is a meteotsunami?

7 Comments

  1. God of dark side people, Dragon in Disney world suddenly started burning in the middle of the parade. I am sure that this fire was set by Galactic Federation of Light. So many evil aliens have been worshiped on the Earth.

    Every amusement park has some kinds of trap to abduct children. You had better avoid to go to amusement parks or zoos with your children. Evil power (=Reptilian Illuminati) is managing these parks. Especially, many kids have been missing in Disney World or DisneyLand. If you are separated from your kids, they do not announce to call your kids in their parks. They have own regulations and police. You are in the US, but if you are in Disneyland, the laws of the US are not applied in their premises. So watch out. Their ride might have some kinds of trap, just like the movie, Midnight Meat Train.

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvDrFH-IVU

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