A video shared by CBS News through Storyful shows a ‘meteotsunami’ slamming the shores of Lake Michigan last week.
The video, which was captured by a city camera in Holland, Michigan, shows water taking over the beach as heavy rain hits the area. A ‘meteotsunami’ takes place when large waves driven by air-pressure disturbances occur commonly with severe thunderstorms and squalls, creating a large wave that moves toward the shore, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
An estimated 100 ‘meteotsunamis’ occur in the Great Lakes region — which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario — annually and are typically small in size.
The ‘meteotsunami’ captured in Holland was reported to be “on the small side,” measuring between 1 and 2 feet on the south end of Lake Michigan and a foot less in western Lower Michigan, according to Bob Dukesherer, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids, via CBS News.
“We are not aware of any major damage,” Dukesherer said. “We did receive one report of some larger plastic walkway sections on a beach being strewn about by the water rise, otherwise, no major damage that we are aware of.”
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