July 20, 1929 Tsunami: South England, United Kingdom

At around 7:30 p.m. (about an hour and a quarter after low tide) on 20 July 1929 a large, tsunami-like wave struck the Kent and Sussex coasts, busy with tourists, and drowned two people. The 22 July Times described the event at a number of locations: At Brighton and Worthing sudden downpours of rain and high winds accompanied the wave, but at Folkestone and Hastings, where one person drowned at each site, the weather was clear, and estimates projected the unexpected wave at approximately 3.5 and 6 meters high, respectively. Uniquely, at Folkestone, observers reported eight large waves entering the harbor, picking up motorboats lying on sand flats, exposed close to low tide, and transporting them more than 180 meters along the length of the inner harbor. The wave washed away a sixteen-year-old boy who was fishing from the breakwater, his body never to be recovered. If this event had coincided with the high tide, then the number of casualties would probably have been much greater and damage more extensive. C. M. K. Douglas suggested that a squall line traveling up the English Channel, coincident with rain and wind, generated the wave, so it may be referred to as a “meteorological tsunami”

At Brighton “a line of foam rushed towards the beach, while pleasure boats raced for safety. Almost before the crowds realized what was happening torrential rains poured down and the wave rushed far up the beach, carrying away chairs and bathers’ clothes.”

(reference #14268)