The Hunga‐Tonga volcano eruption on 15 January 2022 generated tsunami waves that impacted both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the Americas. A unique feature of this event was the dual tsunami generation mechanism, which led to motions with long (several days) ringing and slow energy decay. The first ocean waves to reach the coast were "atmospheric tsunamis" generated by atmospheric Lamb waves that propagated with the speed of sound (∼314 m/s) and circled the globe in both directions several times before being fully attenuated. The second type of ocean waves were classical "oceanic tsunami" waves forced directly by the volcanic eruption and which propagated across the Pacific at roughly 2/3 the speed of the atmospheric waves. This study focuses on time series of the Hunga‐Tonga event recorded by tide gauges, microbarographs and Deep‐ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis on and off the Pacific coasts of North and Central America and in the Gulf of Mexico. Atmospheric tsunami waves only were recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, where the sea level response to the second, westward (shoreward) propagating atmospheric wave was stronger than to the first, eastward (seaward) propagating wave. Along the Pacific coast, the atmospheric tsunami waves were approximately 3–4 times smaller than the oceanic tsunami waves, which at several Mexican stations exceeded 2 m in height. The broad frequency range of 0.2–0.25 to 30 cph spanned by the oceanic tsunami in the Pacific indicates that the "effective" source area for the oceanic waves was more extensive than initially proposed. Plain Language Summary: The eruption of the Hunga‐Tonga volcano in January 2022 generated two types of tsunami waves: ordinary "oceanic" tsunami waves forced by the eruption itself and "atmospheric" tsunami waves forced by propagating pressure waves in the atmosphere. The oceanic tsunamis radiated outward into the Pacific while the atmospheric waves propagated around the globe several times in both the eastward and westward directions. Measurements by tide gauges, microbarographs and open‐ocean Deep‐ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis stations on and off the Pacific coasts of North and Central America and the Gulf of Mexico show that both types of waves were recorded on the Pacific coast but that only the atmospherically generated waves were recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and adjoining Gulf of Mexico. The atmospheric tsunamis were 3–4 times smaller than the oceanic tsunamis, which at Port San Luis and several Mexican locations, including Manzanillo and Ensenada, were higher than 2 m. The broad frequency content of the oceanic waves indicates that their source region had an "effective" area that greatly exceeded that directly spanned by the volcanic eruption. Key Points: The Tonga volcanic event generated two types of tsunami waves: "oceanic" by the eruption and "atmospheric" by atmospheric Lamb wavesThe open‐ocean and coastal records enabled us to separate the two types of tsunami waves and determine their physical propertiesThe waves span a wide frequency range, indicating that the "effective" source region greatly exceeded that covered by the eruption [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]