Tropical Storm Rachel Causes Damage Along California Coast

Waves have battered the boardwalk and beachfront houses in Long Beach. Powerful waves impacted communities along California's southern coast on Friday, damaging homes and sending water through streets as residents prepared for potential further damage from Tropical Storm Rachel. The storm system in the Pacific is expected to make landfall near the California-Mexico border early Sunday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), with forecasts of strong winds and heavy rains that could lead to additional destruction and coastal flooding. The high surf, worsened by the morning's high tide, hit coastal communities, including Long Beach, where significant sections of the boardwalk collapsed and several homes sustained serious structural damage. Areas such as Long Beach and Malibu are likely to experience damaging sea-water flooding over the weekend, the NWS warned. High tides exceeding seven feet (2.1 meters) are expected each morning. Local officials distributed sandbags to residents in vulnerable areas earlier this week. Although Rachel was downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm, it still poses risks of coastal hazards, including flooding, which is expected to peak around Sunday morning, according to Carol Ciliberti, a NWS meteorologist in southern California. A tropical storm watch is in effect for all of San Diego County, marking only the second time such a watch has been issued in California. The NWS advisory indicated that the system's maximum sustained winds are near 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts. Rachel is the latest named storm in this year's active Pacific hurricane season, influenced by a particularly extreme El Nino pattern. El Nino, which occurs approximately every two to seven years, raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and alters global wind and rainfall patterns. This phenomenon weakens vertical wind shear, allowing storm systems to develop more robustly. Human-caused climate change can exacerbate the impacts of El Nino, as a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall. Marc Alessi, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, stated, "You kind of get the fingerprints of climate change everywhere you look." This year's El Nino has been strengthening, with US climate prediction scientists reporting an 83 percent likelihood that it will reach strong-to-very strong levels into the winter. Additionally, a slow-moving surge of water on the US West coast, known as a Kelvin wave, can raise sea levels by up to a foot (30 centimeters), contributing to flood risk in California. This massive swell of water, up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) wide, creates higher seas, worsening the threats to the coast. Alessi noted, "All of these factors are kind of combining at the same time, and the majority of them, of course, are influenced by fossil fuel-driven climate change." He concluded, "Overall, it's just a very dangerous situation for the West coast."