July 4, 2003 Tsunami: Warren Dunes, Michigan, United States
A tsunami of meteorological origin began at Warren Dunes, Michigan, United States on July 4, 2003. The water rose as high as 0.3 meters. It killed 7 people.
Where the waves reached
The source of the tsunami. No runup with a place is recorded for it.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
The tsunami
- Date
- July 4, 2003
- Source
- Warren Dunes, Michigan, United States
- Cause
- Meteorological
- Maximum water height
- 0.3 m (1.0 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 0
- Waters
- A lake or river, not the ocean
- How certain
- Probable tsunami
The toll
- Deaths
- 7
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Thunderstorm crosses Lake Michigan; 7 swimmers drown, attributed to rip currents; Moderate meteotsunami detected at time of drowning, likely contributor (reference #13569)
[…] thunderstorms that rumbled across the lake earlier in the day kicked up waves of 3 to 4 feet and, together with strong winds, created what the Coast Guard described as strong rip tides and an undercurrent. Seven people drowned along a three-mile stretch of beaches, including three at Warren Dunes who were trying to save a foundering 12-year-old boy, who survived (reference #13571)
Damage on coastal structures; strong rip currents; seven people killed. On 4 July 2003, and 18–21 July 2019, a sunny and calm day along the southern shores of Michigan, storm‐generated meteotsunami waves traveled along the coastline as edge waves for a few hours, causing rip currents that drowned seven swimmers who were in the lake at the time (Linares et al., 2019; Y. L. Liu & Wu, 2022). (reference #14271)
A tragic event occurred on the Warren Dunes State Park beach (Lake Michigan) on 4 July 2003: a moderate-height (~ 0.3 m) meteotsunami generated strong offshore currents that drowned seven people (Linares et al. 2019). (reference #14273)
More
Every tsunami in 2003The 2000sTsunamis of United StatesThis day in weather historyAlerts in force
Sources
Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 5886.