Posted on Aug 1, 2023
Surf's up! Wave heights increase on California's coasts as climate warms
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https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/ [login to see] /surfs-up-wave-heights-increase-on-californias-coasts-as-climate-warms
Earlier this year, California was pummeled by what local surfer's described as the best swell in decades: massive waves that damaged piers, crumbled sea cliffs and flooded coastlines. A new study finds that wave heights are getting bigger along the California coast as global temperatures have warmed.
The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, looked at nearly a century's worth of data, and found that the average height of winter waves have grown by about a foot since 1969. The number of storm events that produced waves greater than 13 feet in height has also increased, the study found.
In that same time, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to an increase in average global temperatures by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit.
"This is just another indication that overall average wave heights have increased significantly since 1970 — since the advent of the upward trend in global warming," said Peter Bromirski, researcher emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the study's author.
Earlier this year, California was pummeled by what local surfer's described as the best swell in decades: massive waves that damaged piers, crumbled sea cliffs and flooded coastlines. A new study finds that wave heights are getting bigger along the California coast as global temperatures have warmed.
The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, looked at nearly a century's worth of data, and found that the average height of winter waves have grown by about a foot since 1969. The number of storm events that produced waves greater than 13 feet in height has also increased, the study found.
In that same time, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to an increase in average global temperatures by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit.
"This is just another indication that overall average wave heights have increased significantly since 1970 — since the advent of the upward trend in global warming," said Peter Bromirski, researcher emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the study's author.
Surf's up! Wave heights increase on California's coasts as climate warms
Posted from npr.org
Surfing
Climate Change
State of California
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Posted 10 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Bromirski, who got a Ph.D. in seismology in 1993, knew that those wave-to-wave interactions caused seismic signals that could be detected underwater and on land, "but nobody had tried to invert the seismic signals for wave height," he said.
Interpreting the seismic data was crucial to understanding how wave heights had changed over most of the last century, Bromirski said. Buoys that measure wave height along the West Coast had been collecting data only since 1980, after the rapid intensification of greenhouse gas emissions had already begun.
By using seismic data, Bromirski could look for patterns in a longer window of time. Two notable periods stood out. From 1939 to 1947 and 1957 to 1965 there were extended periods of "exceptionally low winter wave activity," Bromirski said. "There's been nothing like that since 1970.""
..."Bromirski, who got a Ph.D. in seismology in 1993, knew that those wave-to-wave interactions caused seismic signals that could be detected underwater and on land, "but nobody had tried to invert the seismic signals for wave height," he said.
Interpreting the seismic data was crucial to understanding how wave heights had changed over most of the last century, Bromirski said. Buoys that measure wave height along the West Coast had been collecting data only since 1980, after the rapid intensification of greenhouse gas emissions had already begun.
By using seismic data, Bromirski could look for patterns in a longer window of time. Two notable periods stood out. From 1939 to 1947 and 1957 to 1965 there were extended periods of "exceptionally low winter wave activity," Bromirski said. "There's been nothing like that since 1970.""
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