{"id":445470,"date":"2026-09-23T20:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445470\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T20:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:14:09","slug":"what-is-a-kelvin-wave-abc7-chief-meteorologist-dallas-raines-explains-a-concerning-feature-of-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445470\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Kelvin wave? ABC7 chief meteorologist Dallas Raines explains a concerning feature of El Ni\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">The upcoming <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/tag\/el-nino\/\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">El Ni\u00f1o season<\/a> is forecasted to bring high sea levels and potentially powerful winter storms to Southern California, but another component of that natural phenomena is also headed to the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/el-nio-related-kelvin-wave-headed-socal-could-bring-dangerously-high-sea-levels\/19824476\/\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kelvin wave<\/a> is currently moving along the coast of Mexico, and it&#8217;s expected to reach California by next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">What is a Kelvin wave?<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Kelvin waves originate far away in the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean. They&#8217;re a foundational component of what drives El Ni\u00f1o and the massive amount of warming happening in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>A major Kelvin wave moving across the Pacific is expected to arrive in SoCal next month, raising sea levels by 6 to 12 inches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Kelvin waves form when trade winds weaken. When those winds stop blowing, which typically happens every 4-7 years, warm water that accumulates in the ocean starts moving back toward California and South America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That surge of water is not a tsunami, but the Kelvin wave will raise the sea level up to 5 to 10 inches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Although the wave itself won&#8217;t be noticeable to swimmers or boaters, it will be if it arrives during a storm or high tide. California&#8217;s coastline could see even higher water levels as El Ni\u00f1o continues to strengthen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The Kelvin wave is expected to make it to Southern California by early October.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The upcoming El Ni\u00f1o season is forecasted to bring high sea levels and potentially powerful winter storms to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[153763,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-445470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-153763","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}