Above, local California station has coverage of one way in which El Niño will exert strong effects on the state, including Coastal Flooding, which is already underway.
It’s called a Coastaly Trapped Kelvin Wave, and the physics behind it are fascinating.
If you’re interested, Daniel Swain had a really great discussion of this in his super valuable “Office Hours” YouTube session a few weeks ago, which I’ve excerpted here. The full length session is at this link, and worth your time.
Here’s the Kelvin wave explainer, about 10 minutes. Get coffee.
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Swain is interviewed for this local LA CBS report:
Très cool!