UK meteotsunamis: a revision and update on events and their frequency

Catalogues of tsunamis are a necessary basis for hazard and risk assessments of tsunami impact on coastal areas. This is because of the potential for tsunami damage to infrastructure and loss of life. Tsunamis of meteorological origin, termed meteotsunamis, are the most common tsunami mechanism affecting the United Kingdom. From a review of publicly available literature, we here list and describe all historical meteotsunamis identified as striking United Kingdom coastlines. We comment on those previously identified, and present several new, unpublished events. From our revision, we confidently identify 23 meteotsunamis striking the UK since 1759, with an event return period of 10 years. We show a strong correlation between weather systems and meteotsunami generation, which identifies an increased likelihood of impact during the spring and summer months. An increased event frequency over the past 10 years suggests that meteotsunamis may be coming more frequent in UK waters. This, however, may be anecdotal, and due to the increased awareness of tsunami hazard arising from recent global events. We suggest that global warming, progressively driving a rise in global temperature and mean sea level, may increase future event frequency and hazard impact.