July 5, 1939 Tsunami: Dorset, England, United Kingdom

Weymouth 1939. The description given by Haslett et al. (2009) on the tsunami impacting Weymouth on the 5 July 1939 suggests that the origin of the tsunami were the ‘violent storms’ (The Times, 1939a) which swept the UK at the time, but The Times article also mentions an ‘earth tremor’ in the early hours of the morning in South Wales. This earthquake was unlikely to be the direct cause of the tsunami that hit Weymouth, since it was too far west. Hence, it still seems more likely that it was a meteotsunami. (reference #14269)

‘This event occurred in association with ‘‘freak weather and violent [thunder] storms [that] swept many parts of Britain yesterday [Wednesday] following an exceptionally hot night” (The Times, 1939a, p. 16). ‘At Weymouth scores of yachts and small boats were torn from their moorings in what was described as a tidal wave. A wave 6 ft [1.83 m] high came roaring up the narrow harbour, tearing moorings out of the sea-bed and throwing boats in confusion under the town bridge. The boom defence across the entrance to Portland Roads was moved some distance into Portland Harbour [see Fig. 5] by the pressure of the sea” (The Times, 1939a, p. 16). This account is similar to the event in the Yealm and Fowey river estuaries in 1892, again in the English Channel, where such waves appear to be a hazard for moored boats and yachts. Also on the previous day (Tuesday 4th August), squalls in the Bristol Channel overturned a boat close to shore killing three people at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. (reference #6325)