January 8, 2008 Tsunami: Southwest Australia
A tsunami of meteorological origin began at Southwest Australia on January 8, 2008. The water rose as high as 0.35 meters. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.
Where the waves reached
The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.
- 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
- January 8, 2008
- Source
- Southwest Australia
- Cause
- Meteorological
- Maximum water height
- 0.35 m (1.1 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
A severe thunderstorm with large hail and strong winds occurred in the south-west of WA in the late evening of 8 January 2008. This thunderstorm caused a meteotsunami along the south coast, which was recorded at the Esperance and Bremer Bay tide gauges. The meteotsunami occurred at Esperance at ~1830 and high-frequency oscillations continued for more than a day. The meteotsunami occurred during the rising mid-tide, and the first wave (with a height of ~0.7 m) was the largest in the wave group. For comparison, the highest wave recorded at Esperance on 26 December 2004 was 0.44 m (Pattiaratchi and Wijeratne 2009). (reference #11089)
Every runup
Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.
| Where | Country | Km from source | Water height, m | Inland, m | Measured by | First wave, UTC | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esperance | Australia | 0.35 | Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height) |
More
Every tsunami in 2008The 2000sTsunamis of AustraliaThis 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 6071.