Characterization and assessment of the meteotsunami hazard in northern Lake Michigan

Abstract

The meteotsunami hazard is assessed in northern Lake Michigan from both short-term and long-term records of water level, wind speed, and air pressure. Cross-wavelet analysis reveals that meteotsunamis can be caused by atmospheric disturbances that are pressure dominated, wind dominated, or both pressure and wind forced. In total, air pressure and wind stress are found to contribute similarly to meteotsunami initiation in northern Lake Michigan. The pressure-driven meteotsunamis tend to be associated with convective storms, whereas meteotsunamis that are mainly wind-driven are associated more with cyclonic-type storms. The atmospheric disturbances responsible for largest meteotsunamis in northern Lake Michigan are found to have a propagation speed close to 32 m/s and from the south to north direction. A heuristic approach is developed to estimate the maximum meteotsunami height from the atmospheric disturbance strength and velocity. Overall, the heuristic approach is shown to be an effective methodology to assess the meteotsunami hazard over a wide range of potential atmospheric disturbance conditions.