El Niño Can Raise Sea Levels Along U.S. Coast

butterfly-beach-storm-2014
Southern California, winter storm. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

The El Niño event underway in the Pacific Ocean is impacting temperature and weather patterns around the world. But its effects aren’t confined to the atmosphere: A new study has found that the cyclical climate phenomenon can ratchet up sea levels off the West Coast by almost 8 inches over just a few seasons.

The clearest signals from El Niño on coastal sea levels were found along the West Coast; the find wasn’t surprising given that El Niño is a Pacific-based phenomenon…

Read Full Article, Climate Central

Modeling the Past to Understand the Future of a Stronger El Niño, Science Daily (11-26-2014)
It was fishermen off the coast of Peru who first recognized the anomaly, hundreds of years ago. Every so often, their usually cold, nutrient-rich water would turn warm and the fish they depended on would disappear. Then there was the ceaseless rain. They called it “El Nino…

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