By Alexander Fox, Bay Nature
The El Niño of 2015–16 was not the drought panacea Californians might have hoped for, but it was still one of the strongest El Niños on record. A new study shows how it dramatically reshaped the state’s coastline. A team led by U.S. Geological Survey coastal geologist Patrick Barnard determined that last winter generated either the most powerful, or second most powerful, waves ever recorded in the Eastern North Pacific, and those waves, combined with elevated sea level caused by El Niño’s warm water, ripped tons of sand and sediment off California beaches and out to sea.
After the El Niño had ended, Barnard’s team surveyed 29 beaches along 1,200 miles of the West Coast and found that shorelines had retreated an average of 115 feet — 76 percent more than a normal year and 27 percent more than in the previous record year. They reported their findings in February 2017 in the journal Nature Communications.
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