February 9, 2014 Tsunami: Cassino Beach, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
A tsunami of meteorological origin began at Cassino Beach, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on February 9, 2014 at 10:30 UTC. The water rose as high as 1 meters. Its effects were recorded at 2 places.
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
- February 9, 2014, 10:30 UTC
- Source
- Cassino Beach, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Cause
- Meteorological
- Maximum water height
- 1 m (3.3 ft)
- Runups recorded
- 2
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Definite tsunami
The toll
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
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.
According to the media news, the waves came at ~ 13:30 (local time, 10:30 GMT) with around a meter height. Fortunately, although there were a lot of people at the beach, only cars and other material goods were damaged.
In a synoptic meteorological scale, the event was associated with the warm barotropic trough from the center of Brazil and large pressure gradient (around 6–7 hPa/100 km). Other meteorological conditions observed in the region were: the inversion layers from the surface up to 900 or 920 hPa, warm advection at the low levels (up to 800 hPa) before the event, the jet stream at the low levels from the warm Amazon region that created this advection, the intensive convection and Mesoscale Convective Complex, MCCs, a grouping of storms before and after the event time. (reference #13945)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cassino Beach | Brazil | 1 | Eyewitness observation of water height | ||||
| Patos Lagoon, Rio Grande | Brazil | 0.4 | Tide gauge (half the maximum wave height) |
More
Every tsunami in 2014The 2000sTsunamis of BrazilThis 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 5983.