This is footage from Sørvágur in the Faroe Island on January 18th, 2012, the same day as those storm photos you might remember. It is called a meteotsunami or meteorological tsunami, and is a wave phenomenon of meteorological origin, where traveling air pressure disturbances (in this case a huge atmospheric low pressure) generate barotropic ocean waves that amplify near the coast through resonance mechanisms. We call it ‘rennisjógvur’ (running sea) or ‘storm flóð’ (storm flood) in Faroese, and this video is in real time.
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