What happened in this Energy story?

A record-strength El Niño has pushed eastern Pacific sea levels 40 cm above normal, with effects projected to peak in late November or December and threaten coastal flooding from Alaska to Chile.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**The eastern Pacific** is currently 40 cm above normal sea level, with strong westerly winds expected to drive levels even higher over the next few weeks, per Paul Roundy at the University at Albany.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**El Niño sea-level changes** amplify non-linearly during strong events — meaning smaller past events can't simply be extrapolated to predict current impacts, according to a study by Thomas Monahan at the University of Oxford.

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El Niño is dramatically increasing sea levels – how bad could it get? — SkimNews

By New Scientist · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-10-19

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The eastern Pacific is currently 40 cm above normal sea level, with strong westerly winds expected to drive levels even higher over the next few weeks, per Paul Roundy at the University at Albany.
El Niño sea-level changes amplify non-linearly during strong events — meaning smaller past events can't simply be extrapolated to predict current impacts, according to a study by Thomas Monahan at the University of Oxford.
Monahan's team projects sea-level rises of 24–40 cm in the Galápagos, 19–34 cm in Peru and Ecuador, and 9–13 cm in California, all stacked on top of the 20 cm rise in global mean sea level since 1900.
California faces compounded risk from coinciding lunar tidal cycles (18.6-year nodal and 8.85-year perigean), adding roughly 5 cm on top of the El Niño effect during peak tides expected in Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks.
Storm risks are expected to intensify as El Niño deepens low pressure near the Aleutian Islands; during the 2015/16 El Niño, waves over 15 meters hit Oregon — the largest ever recorded on a US coastline.
California declared a state of emergency in September, with researchers warning that extreme rainfall could echo the 1877 event that profoundly flooded the Central Valley.
Peak sea-surface temperatures are projected for late November or December, when Kelvin waves triggered by reversed trade winds complete their roughly 60-day crossing of the Pacific.

Why it matters: For coastal communities from Alaska to Chile, this El Niño's amplified sea-level response — layered on 20 cm of long-term global rise since 1900 — raises the odds of record-breaking coastal flooding during the highest tides of the year. California, already under a September state of emergency, faces stacked threats: 9–13 cm of sea-level rise, the largest spring tides in years, intensified Aleutian storm surges, and rainfall that researchers say risks rivaling the catastrophic 1877 Central Valley floods.