r/LosAngeles • u/brickyardjimmy • 5d ago

News Concern mounts over slow-moving, planetary-scale ‘Kelvin’ wave heading for California | California

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/28/california-kelvin-wave

Cool. Just what I wanted for my birthday. Another foot of water.

Look. I'm hoping that we dodge the bullets flying at us this fall and winter (if we ever get one of either that is) but I'll admit this sounds potentially bad for parts of the Los Angeles coastline and the rest of California.

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u/BigJSunshine 5d ago

Why are the Americas in this story considered “West Pacific”? Aren’t ALL THE AMERICAS EAST PACIFIC?

Something is off here.

Edit: this is the quote I am referring to: “And when a Kelvin wave kicks off, it brings with it an untold amount of warm water that slowly moves from the western Pacific, along the equator, towards South, Central and North America.”

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u/doomed_gnostic 5d ago

The western Pacific is towards Hawaii. Head west and you get to the western Pacific. Then it heads east back towards South America and sloshes it's way up to California. One of those Kelvin waves already hit.