Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Bigger Kahuna: Are More Frequent and Higher Extreme Waves a By-Product of Global Warming?


Increasing maximum wave heights off the Pacific Northwest coast may pose a greater threat than rising sea levels


Armand Thibault looked out over the Pacific's rumbling winter waves from his balcony in Neskowin, Ore. "The predicted high tide today is a 10.1 [feet]," he relayed via YouTube on Friday, January 29. "I'm very glad we don't have a storm surge behind this one. Tomorrow is supposed to be a 10.2, so it should be interesting."

Fortunately, Neskowin didn't experience a storm surge on Saturday either. But like a growing number of seaside towns along the Pacific Northwest coast, it is only a matter of time before another storm blows extreme waves across their coastlines and adds to already massive flooding and erosion. More >>>