A NOAA oceanographer explains Kelvin waves, their part in El Niño events, and their impacts along the U.S. West Coast.

Sea level on the California coast is likely to be pushed to extremes this winter by compounding forces, but these extremes ...

Kelvin waves are slow-moving pulses of water that travel beneath the ocean's surface, creating broad peaks and valleys.

The swell moving up the coast is a planetary-scale process, meaning it's thousands of miles wide, known as a Kelvin wave, and is a direct impact of El Niño.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Waves from Hurricane Marie crash into a seawall at the Surf and Sand Hotel in Laguna Beach on Saturday. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot) ...

Scientists warn that a deep ocean wave driven by El Niño conditions could raise Bay Area sea levels by up to a foot by the ...

A large pulse of wave energy is expected to travel up the West Coast.

Sea levels along the West Coast will begin to rise by up to a foot this month as a series of pulses of warm water called Kelvin waves hit the shoreline and move north.

A massive underwater wave linked to El Niño is moving north along the California coast, raising ocean levels and potentially ...

We finally know the forces behind an 80-foot-tall wall of water that rocked the North Sea in 1995. By Laura Baisas Published Aug 5, 2025 12:30 PM EDT Add Popular Science (opens in a new tab) More ...