Tropical Storm Rachel is due ashore near the California-Mexico border early Sunday under only the second tropical storm watch ever issued in California. Its swell is already damaging homes and flooding streets along the coast, days before the center arrives.
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Researchers warn an internal Kelvin wave from this year's super El Niño could lift California sea levels by up to 30 cm once it reaches the coast. The raised water would add to winter storm surges, though the oceanographer quoted expects it to distort tides for weeks.
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Science News reports the El Nino region's daily sea surface anomaly hit 3.08 C on September 21, past the 3.02 C mark set in November 2015. NOAA's preferred index still ranks the 1997-98 event stronger, leaving two analogues in play for the coming seasons.
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Hansen says this El Nino is already the strongest; two of three metrics still put it behind
Subsurface heat content has passed the 1997-98 super event with the peak still months away, while the surface index has not. The furthest-out year any quoted scientist names is 2026.
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Record El Nino, wrong states: why this winter is noise for Colorado River siting
Mead and Powell set multiple record lows this month, and the reliable wet signal lands where the water is used rather than where the snowpack that refills them piles up.
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