Tsunami-like sea level oscillations recently recorded by tide gauges located along the coasts of British Columbia (Canada) and Washington State (USA) have been identified as meteorological tsunamis. Globally, such events can create hazardous conditions in coastal areas, including the possible loss of life, and need to be taken into account in any assessment of risk to nearshore infrastructure. On 1 November 2010, a significant meteotsunami occurred in the southern Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. To examine this event, we have used all available sea level and air pressure data, including 1-min records from five Canadian Hydrographic Service and five USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide gauges, as well as high-resolution time series from two Ocean Network Canada VENUS bottom pressure recorders and from 132 air pressure sensors within the Victoria School-Based Weather Station Network of southern British Columbia. The oceanic responses to four well-defined atmospheric disturbances (labelled D1–D4) were selected for analysis. Disturbance D3, which propagated toward ~ 100° True (eastward) at a speed of ~ 20 m/s, appears to have been responsible for generating the meteotsunami observed in the southern Strait of Georgia, while disturbance D4 that moved toward ~ 55° True at a speed of 24 m/s appears to have produced the meteotsunami observed in Juan de Fuca Strait that separates Vancouver Island from Washington State. We used the physical parameters derived for the four disturbances to force numerical simulations of the events and compared the results to observations from selected tide gauge sites. The numerical experiments revealed strongly individual sea level responses at each site to changing air pressure disturbance speed, direction and intensity, such that each location has its own set of “site-specific” air pressure characteristics that produce the strongest sea level response. Differences in the local topography and coastline geometry appear to be responsible for the different responses among sites.

最近，位于不列颠哥伦比亚省（加拿大）和华盛顿州（美国）沿海的潮汐仪记录到的类似海啸的海平面振荡已被确定为气象海啸。。在全球范围内，此类事件可能会在沿海地区造成危险状况，包括可能造成生命损失，因此在评估近岸基础设施的风险时必须考虑到这些事件。2010年11月1日，不列颠哥伦比亚省佐治亚州南部海峡发生了重大的海啸。为了检查这一事件，我们使用了所有可用的海平面和气压数据，包括来自五个加拿大水文局和五个美国国家海洋与大气管理局潮汐仪的1分钟记录，以及来自两个海洋网络的高分辨率时间序列。加拿大VENUS底部压力记录仪和不列颠哥伦比亚省南部维多利亚学校气象站网络中的132个气压传感器。选择了对四种定义明确的大气干扰（标记为D1-D4）的海洋响应进行分析。扰动D3以〜20 m / s的速度向〜100°True（向东）传播，似乎是造成佐治亚州海峡南部观测到的流星海啸的原因，而扰动D4则向〜55°True传播了在以温哥华岛与华盛顿州分隔的胡安·德·富卡海峡，以24 m / s的速度似乎产生了陨石海啸。我们使用从四个扰动得出的物理参数来强制进行事件的数值模拟，并将结果与​​选定潮汐仪位点的观测结果进行比较。数值实验显示，每个地点对气压扰动速度，方向和强度的变化都有很强的个体海平面响应，这样，每个位置都有其自己的“特定地点”气压特性集，这些特性会产生最强的海平面响应。局部地形和海岸线几何形状的差异似乎是造成站点间响应不同的原因。