Free email delivery
Please sign up for email delivery in the subscription area to the right.
No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
More on the Kelvin Wave, El Niño & Rising Sea Level | Laist Air Talk
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
If you read our posting of 16 September about the Kelvin Wave (NOAA link) (or even if you didn’t) this radio discussion has much more information on this phenomena which is new to most people. The Kelvin Wave (named for Lord Kelvin, mathematician and scientist, 1824-1907) is not like an ordinary wave breaking on the beach, but more like a very long oscillation in the ocean’s surface. The wave can be from 6-14 inches in height, hundreds of miles wide and thousands of miles long.
So…not a big wave crashing on the beach, but a influx of warm water raising local sea level by 6-14 inches and lasting for weeks. These waves can add up if a newer wave overrides an earlier wave. The warmer water brings warm-water sea-life as well as tropical birds we rarely see here, such as the Cocos Booby that was seen recently in the San Francisco area. But it also suppresses the usual sea-life upon which our local seabirds depend, and may be the reason we are seeing so many dead seabirds such as gulls and cormorants on our beaches, as discussed in our blog of 12 September.
Air Talk is a long-running local talk show, hosted by Larry Mantle, on LAist (formerly KPCC) radio based in Pasadena. The link below is to his broadcast at 9am on Tuesday 15 September, 2026. The first 25 minutes were devoted to a discussion of our approaching El Niño winter, including the Kelvin Wave currently approaching SoCal, what Orange County is doing to prepare its beaches and residents for the winter and problems it is expecting, as well as El Niño in general.
Times:
1:10 – Larry Mantle begins
1:40 to 11:00 – Interview with Daniel Swain
3:10 – Discussion of Kelvin Wave begins
11:00 to 21:30 – Interview with Katrina Foley
21:40 – Daniel Swain again, on sea level rise mitigation efforts
24:30 – End
Guests, host and honorable mention:
Daniel Swain: University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Climate and Weather Scientist and Associate Researcher. Link
Katrina Foley: Supervisor of the Fifth District of Orange County, which includes many well-known coastal communities such as Costa Mesa, Dana Paint, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano. Link
Larry Mantle: Host for over 40 years of the longest running daily talk show in the history of the Los Angeles radio market. If it breaths, he has probably interviewed it. Link
Cocos Booby Sula brewsteri: Resident of the eastern Pacific Ocean from mid-Baja California to Ecuador. Formerly known as Brewster’s Booby. Link
Coastal Cleanup Day Sign up | Saturday Sept. 19, 9am-12pm
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
When: Saturday, September 19th, 9 am – 12 pm
Where: Many locations, including: Ballona Creek, Dockweiler Beach, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles River, Leo Carillo Beach, Malibu Lagoon, Malibu Pier, Manhattan Beach & Pier, Marina del Rey (Mother’s Beach), Nicholas Canyon Beach, Playa del Rey beach, Redondo Beach & Pier, Santa Monica Beach (several locations), Sepulveda Basin (Lake Balboa), Sunset Point Beach, Topanga Beach, Torrence Beach, Venice Beach (several locations), Will Rogers State Beach
One day. Thousands of volunteers. A cleaner future.
Every piece of plastic removed from a beach, every bottle collected from a neighborhood, and every pound of debris kept out of our waterways adds up.
Coastal Cleanup Day is a global day of action to protect our oceans, waterways, and wildlife from pollution. For 37 years, Heal the Bay has proudly coordinated this effort across Los Angeles County in partnership with the California Coastal Commission and Ocean Conservancy.
Last year across L.A. 6,722 volunteers removed 19,139 pounds of trash and 610 pounds of recycling from 70 sites.
This year, 60+ cleanup sites will span beaches, rivers, parks, trails, neighborhoods, and underwater dive sites throughout L.A. County.
Whether you’re restoring a local park, cleaning up your neighborhood, or getting your hands sandy at the beach, there’s a place for you to make an impact.
[Thanks to Pasadena Audubon Society for use of their announcement format]
The Kelvin Wave: coming soon to a coast near you | L.A. Times
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
This wave, known as a “costally-trapped Kelvin wave,” is a key element of the El Niño weather condition. It is bringing warm equatorial water across the Pacific from Indonesia and the Indian Ocean and has already hit the Pacific Coast of South America. There, now “costally-trapped,” it split, sending water both south and north along the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The northbound section has already reached Mexico and is somewhere near Puerto Vallarta. SoCal sea level is expected to rise around six inches.
California coast braces for another battering as new El Niño-related wave emerges in Pacific
By Rong-Gong Lin II Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times | 10 Sept 2026 4:12 PM PT
[North Carolina State University assistant professor Dillon] Amaya said he expects the wave to enter the Gulf of California on or around Sept. 19. Once there, it’ll take around eleven days for the wave to hug the gulf’s U-shaped coast and, from there, another several for it to travel from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula — Cabo San Lucas — to San Diego. It’ll then take about two to three days to reach L.A., another two to three more to get to San Francisco.
That would put the wave’s arrival in Southern California in early October, although the exact timing remains uncertain.
There was already a Kelvin wave earlier this year moving from the western North Pacific to the Gulf of Alaska from mid-May to mid-June. During the El Niño season of 2015-1 there were “five or six coastally trapped Kelvin waves that made their way up the coastline.” Hurricane season is not yet over and warm ocean water makes hurricane formation in the eastern Pacific more likely.
Link to: JPL Sea Level Mission satellite video graphic of warm water swell moving across Pacific March 2 – May 18, 2026.
Link to: NOAA Climate Prediction Center Report: ENSO: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions
Link to: JPL Sea Level Isn’t Level scrolling video
Link to: JPL 27-Year Sea Level Rise maps (example below)
Link to: NASA El Niño map below
Building a Better Birdhouse | Library of Congress
[Posted by Chuck Almdale, submitted by Edna Alvarez]
The Library of Congress has a weekly blog.
This recent posting feature photographs from early 20th century “bird house contests,” children’s competitions designed to foster a love of nature, as well as teach design and construction skills. It draws from several of the Division’s large photographic archives, including the Harris & Ewing, National Photo Company, and American National Red Cross collections.
This photo evokes fond memories for me as I spent a great deal of my childhood up one tree or another, doing this, that and the other.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.03416
The linked article also provides other ways to access the Library of Congress, one of the world’s largest collections of documents and photos, such as their Prints & Photos Online Catalog.
Reporter investigates dead birds on our beaches | The LA Local
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
Intrepid reporter Megan Tan may or may not be able to name her pelicans, skimmers and gulls, but – alarmed by the number of dead birds on her beach – she went seeking answers. I admire her curiosity, concern, persistence, her investigative and reporting skills, and commend her for bringing this problem to the attention of a wider audience. Perhaps she’d like to join us on one of our Malibu Lagoon trips.
Something is killing birds on local beaches — and no one knows why
From bird flu to oil rigs to a mysterious oceanic heat wave called “The Blob,” experts are chasing theories. The birds keep washing up anyway.
By Megan Tan | May. 13, 2026 | The LA Local
Exerpted from the article:
As we walked and talked, we saw the usual suspects — abandoned toothbrushes, deodorant sticks and empty laundry detergent containers blowing like tumbleweeds. The cleaning products dirtying the stretch of sand didn’t make me want to put on my shoes, but the birds did.
“Is that a seagull?” I asked. It was dead. A few more steps and we saw a cormorant, one of those black, glossy birds that are always sunbathing with their wings out. Dead. A few more steps. Another seagull. Dead. More steps. Then another cormorant. Along a 1.5-mile stretch, I saw eight dead birds.
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 