On 6 and 7 July 2010, uncommon sea waves were observed along the coast of Portugal. The Portuguese tide gauge network recorded the sea-level signals showing tsunami-like waves of heights varying from 0.14 to 0.6 m (crest-to-trough) and of periods in the range of 30 to 60 min. Analysis of both oceanic and atmospheric data revealed the occurrence of a meteotsunami in the night of July 6th that propagated from Lagos, south, up to Viana, north. Here, we present the first investigation of the 2010 meteotsunami that struck the coast of Portugal. We use the atmospheric pressure data to force the sea surface and numerically generate the 2010 meteotsunami. We then simulate the 2010 meteotsunami propagation over high-resolution bathymetric models using a validated nonlinear shallow water code. The comparison of the simulated waveforms with the records shows satisfactory agreement of wave heights and periods in most stations. Taking the 2010 event as a reference of meteotsunamis along the Portuguese coast, we further provide an insight into the meteotsunami hazard posed by events propagating from south to north of the country. This is done by considering a 2D Gaussian-shape pressure disturbance that propagates along the shelf under varying conditions of speed and incident angle. This allows identifying “hot spots” on the coast of Portugal where the focus of meteotsunami energy is favourable. Our results suggest that meteotsunamis present a real threat on the highly occupied Portuguese coast and therefore should be considered in tsunami hazard and forecasting strategies of the NE Atlantic countries.

2010年7月6日至7日，在葡萄牙沿海地区发现了罕见的海浪。葡萄牙的潮汐仪网络记录了海平面信号，显示出类似海啸的波，其高度在0.14至0.6 m（波峰至波谷）之间变化，周期为30至60分钟。通过对海洋和大气数据的分析，发现了7月6日晚发生的海啸，从南部的拉各斯一直传播到北部的维亚纳。在这里，我们提出对2010年袭击葡萄牙海岸的Meteotsunami的首次调查。我们使用大气压力数据强迫海面并以数字方式生成2010年的海啸。然后，我们使用经过验证的非线性浅水代码在高分辨率测深模型上模拟2010年海啸的传播。模拟波形与记录的比较表明，大多数台站的波高和周期令人满意。以2010年的事件为参考，葡萄牙沿岸的海啸发生了，我们进一步了解了从该国南部到北部传播的事件对海啸造成的危害。这是通过考虑在速度和入射角变化的条件下沿货架传播的二维高斯形状压力扰动来完成的。这样就可以确定葡萄牙海沿岸的“热点”，这是重点关注对流海浪能源的领域。我们的结果表明，海啸对高度占领的葡萄牙海岸构成了真正的威胁，因此应在东北大西洋国家的海啸灾害和预报策略中考虑。