{"id":465089,"date":"2026-09-16T02:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465089\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T02:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:00:10","slug":"el-nino-to-raise-california-coastal-sea-levels-by-about-a-foot-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465089\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o to raise California coastal sea levels by about a foot this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Ni\u00f1o to raise California coastal sea levels by about a foot this fall<\/p>\n

\"Kyle<\/a>SALINAS, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o is expected to raise sea levels along California\u2019s coast by about a foot this fall, driven by a massive Kelvin wave moving across the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

During El Ni\u00f1o, ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific warm, causing atmospheric pressure to drop and sea levels to rise along the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Warmer water and higher sea levels typically found in the western Pacific begin moving eastward across the ocean in the form of a wave. This Kelvin wave is a massive phenomenon that takes months to travel across the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Over the past three months\u2014June, July and August\u2014warmer water and higher sea levels, represented in red, shifted eastward across the equatorial Pacific.<\/p>\n

When the wave reaches the eastern edge of the Pacific, the water spreads poleward, including toward the West Coast.<\/p>\n

As a result, high tides could be even higher, while storm surges could push water farther inland, increasing flood risks along the West Coast during the winter.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o can produce more than one Kelvin wave. During the last strong El Ni\u00f1o, in 2015 and 2016, more than one wave developed, meaning water levels could rise again in the months ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o to raise California coastal sea levels by about a foot this fall SALINAS, Calif. \u2014 El…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[183139,183140,183141,7,1595,183143,9,8,9350,62241,183134,20786,10648,171612,16538,183137,183136,2641,63198,5679,183138,180739,855,183142,3906,183144,1602,4130,35915,9648,183135,97792,490,168490,59040],"class_list":["post-465089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2015-el-nino","tag-2016-el-nino","tag-august-warmer-water","tag-california","tag-california-coast","tag-california-coastal-sea-level","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-coast","tag-coastal-flooding","tag-coastal-sea-levels","tag-eastern-pacific","tag-el-nino","tag-equatorial-pacific","tag-fall","tag-fall-weather","tag-flood-risks","tag-foot","tag-high-tides","tag-july","tag-june-july-august","tag-kelvin-wave","tag-ksbw","tag-massive-kelvin-wave","tag-month","tag-months-june","tag-pacific","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-sea-level","tag-sea-level-rise","tag-storm-surge","tag-warm-water","tag-west-coast","tag-western-pacific","tag-winter-storms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}