Analysis and catalogue of sneaker waves in the US Pacific Northwest between 2005 and 2017

Sneaker waves are responsible for many casualties and beach rescues in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the USA. In this paper, a catalogue of these events from 2005 to mid-2017 in Oregon and Northern California is presented. The events are grouped depending on the local characteristics into th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Natural hazards (Dordrecht) 2018-11, Vol.94 (2), p.583-603
Main Authors: García-Medina, Gabriel, Özkan-Haller, H. Tuba, Ruggiero, Peter, Holman, Rob A., Nicolini, Troy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beach slope
Beaches
Casualties
Civil Engineering
Coasts
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Environmental Management
Geophysics/Geodesy
Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences
Hydrogeology
Natural Hazards
Original Paper
Significant wave height
Significant waves
Storms
Water levels
Wave height
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Summary:Sneaker waves are responsible for many casualties and beach rescues in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the USA. In this paper, a catalogue of these events from 2005 to mid-2017 in Oregon and Northern California is presented. The events are grouped depending on the local characteristics into those involving structures, semi-enclosed beaches, and open-coast beaches. It was found that sneaker waves occurred between the months of October and April, which is also the time of the year of most storm activity in the PNW. The majority of the events are associated with long-period swell approaching the coast. Beach slope and significant wave height were not found to correlate with sneaker wave incidents. However, total water level analysis reveals that the run-up level was expected to reach the beachgoers for the majority of the investigated cases indicating that a forecasting system to warn beachgoers is possible.
ISSN:0921-030X
1573-0840
DOI:10.1007/s11069-018-3403-z