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Pacific Waves
Tue Feb 25, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook's weekly segment on global climate
change. Recent observations of Pacific storms have shown an increase in wave height. Some
are attributing this to global climate change as Chris Richard reports from
California.
A series of fierce winter storms have piled up against California's beaches this winter and
lifeguards are putting out warnings like this:
"You've reached the Los Angeles County lifeguards and our current surf and weather
observations. Ocean surface is very stormy, victory at sea conditions..."
The rough conditions may be caused by the cyclical weather pattern known as El Niño.
But Nick Graham, a researcher at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography says he's seen a steady
progression.
NG: There has been an increase in the frequency of winter storms. The waves get 35 percent
bigger. It's important to keep in mind that the wave climate isn't fixed. When you do
simulations of global warming, some of them do show a transient increase in the storm
track.
Graham compiled weather records back to 1948 and cross-referenced them with air pressure and
surface wind data. In the last half century there have been more storms, higher waves, and a
southward shift in wind direction. The changes are caused by higher sea-water temperatures in
the tropics, possibly a symptom of global warming. Graham says under other global warming
models wind patterns would shift northward, not south. So, the Pacific data is far from
conclusive. But, scientists have noted a similar pattern in the Atlantic. There too, some
are attributing the shift to human meddling.
SK: Are we going to see even higher waves and what impact is that going to have in all the
coastal areas and is there anything that we should do about it now?
Sheldon Kameinacki, a political science professor at the University of Southern California,
says these new findings raise questions in local politics and since the majority of
Californians live along the coast, the political pressure is likely to increase.
Chris Richard comes to us from Los Angeles. Our series on global climate change is supported
by the New England Science Center Collaborative and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.
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