Meteorological Tsunamis

I learned last week at the big AGU meeting about yet another kind of tsunami: meteotsunamis caused by strong weather disturbances plus a few (un)lucky breaks. Unlike our more dreaded seismic tsunamis, these are local events that may strike only a single harbor with the right orientation and physical dimensions to amplify the incoming wave trains. But the people in those places have their own local names for these: abiki, rissaga, marubbio. The clumsier name "meteotsunami" gives them global and scientific status. They seem to be favorable subjects for forecasting, and that's good news.