Meteotsunami: When Weather Makes Waves

On a perfect coastal day, a sudden drop in water level can be followed by a towering, tsunami-like surge—with no earthquake. This episode explains meteorological tsunamis: how rapid atmospheric pressure changes from squall lines and severe storms displace water and trigger resonance that amplifies a small ripple into a powerful wave train. We'll see how coastline shape funnels energy, explore notable examples like the 1978 Vela Luka wave, and discuss how scientists fuse atmospheric data with deep-ocean pressure sensors and tide gauges to tell weather-driven waves apart from true tsunamis. With only about 3% of historical tsunamis confirmed as meteorological, there’s a lot more to learn—and that ongoing discovery is reshaping how we monitor coastlines worldwide.

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