{"id":803939,"date":"2026-08-05T22:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:06:15","slug":"experts-warn-strong-el-nino-could-bring-record-sea-levels-to-california-coast-with-flooding-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803939\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts warn strong El Ni\u00f1o could bring record sea levels to California coast with flooding concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Experts are warning that a strengthening El Ni\u00f1o could trigger coastal flooding, beach erosion and some of the highest sea levels ever recorded along the California coast in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Climate scientist Daniel Swain said that warming in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean is already underway and evolving rapidly.<\/p>\n

“Just looking at the maps, even this week, things are changing very quickly now in recent days,” Swain said.<\/p>\n

MORE: El Ni\u00f1o is strengthening: Here’s what it means for the US<\/a><\/p>\n

Swain said the current El Ni\u00f1o is expected to intensify significantly.<\/p>\n

“Is expected to strengthen considerably from here. Strengthening ultimately to a very strong or so-called Super El Ni\u00f1o. That’s what that term means, it’s a tier higher than strong, it’s very strong, and could even become potentially the strongest on record,” Swain said.<\/p>\n

Thousands of North Bay residents joined a virtual town hall Tuesday night to discuss the potential impacts. Months after powerful king tides flooded neighborhoods, residents are worried about it happening again.<\/p>\n

“Likely the highest sea levels ever recorded on the California coast associated with this event,” said Mark Merrifield of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.<\/p>\n

MORE: Powerful El Ni\u00f1o intensifies, increasing chances of a stormy, very wet winter across California<\/a><\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o is officially on the rise. Ocean temperatures along the equatorial Pacific are running 1.2\u00b0C above average, and forecasters say warming is expected to continue into winter.<\/p>\n

According to the experts, water levels in San Francisco Bay rose significantly during the 2023-24 El Ni\u00f1o and king tides, and the current system appears stronger.<\/p>\n

More than 5,700 people watched the virtual town hall, which was led by State Sen. Mike McGuire. Much of the discussion focused on what California could experience later this year and into early next year.<\/p>\n

“But the big impacts will probably not arrive for a couple of months, later in the fall into winter,” Swain said.<\/p>\n

Experts said the most significant impacts could occur around late December, January, February or March.<\/p>\n

Swain said coastal flooding is likely to be the biggest concern. Higher sea levels and larger waves could also contribute to beach erosion and cliff failures.<\/p>\n

“Those are going to cause the beaches of California to erode and narrow, it’s well documented that during El Ni\u00f1o events beaches across the entire state tend to move landward by about 30 meters or so,” Merrifield said.<\/p>\n

Swain also noted that many California homeowners do not carry flood insurance and said residents in high-risk areas may want to consider obtaining coverage.<\/p>\n

Experts emphasized that the forecasts are based on current weather models and remain predictions subject to change as conditions develop.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Experts are warning that a strengthening El Ni\u00f1o could trigger coastal flooding, beach erosion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[341437,192,79],"class_list":["post-803939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-341437","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}