[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