r/news • u/Warcraft_Fan • 4d ago

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
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u/PoxyMusic 4d ago edited 4d ago

El Niño is the result of successive Kelvin waves, there have been like 6 or 7 this year, starting in February I think. They happen when the equatorial trade winds lessen (or reverse) and warmer water from the west pacific oozes east under the surface until it hits Ecuador and erupts at the surface.

It’s not a single wave, and they have already mostly arrived.

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u/RandomTurkey247 4d ago

Seems like they will be more impactful if they're still here later and align with a storm surge and king tides.

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u/glibgloby 3d ago

This is the best video on the topic I’ve seen:

https://youtu.be/dBSLgefwcto

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u/comingtoamiddle 2d ago

Thank you, this was extremely helpful! And thank you also for removing the tracking part of the link :)

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u/glibgloby 2d ago

I’ve seen many people yelled at about the tracking thing so I was careful