There’s a Kelvin wave heading to B.C., but what the heck does that mean?
Daily Hive recently caught up with Environment and Climate Change Canada Research Scientist Bill Merryfield, and thankfully, he knows a lot about the Kelvin wave and the potential impacts it could have on the province.
To put it simply, a Kelvin wave is a bulge in the water caused by a westerly wind burst, and it can heavily impact an El Niño by intensifying it.
“This happens along the equator in the Pacific Ocean towards the Asian side of the Pacific,” Merryfield said.
The winds along that region generally blow from east to west, he explained, but when something interrupts or reverses it, it pushes the ocean, hence creating this bulge or Kelvin wave.
Kelvin waves cannot be seen by the naked eye, but can be measured by satellites.
Initial reports suggested that the wave would hit B.C. in mid-October, but Merryfield says it’s somewhere in the California region right now, expected to reach our shores in the next week or two.
“It takes about three months to get from where it is created in the far eastern part of the Pacific along the equator to our shores,” he said.
Merryfield added that it’s “quite remarkable” that a burst of wind could cause something like this to travel around 20,000 kilometres.
In the California area, it has raised sea levels by about 20 to 40 centimetres.
We’ve reported on King Tides in the past, and in combination with the Kelvin wave, it could make for some treacherous conditions along B.C. coastal areas, as sea levels in the province will be impacted by the influence of the Kelvin wave in a week or two.
The last time we saw this happen “in a very big way,” as Merryfield puts it, was in the late ’90s during a super El Niño.
Merryfield warns that as we get closer to the winter months, this El Niño-caused sea level rise could persist for a number of weeks. In combination with king tides, it could lead to coastal flooding and erosion, worse than what would normally occur.
B.C. is already expecting a mild winter, and this could influence winter conditions by bringing added warmth to coastal areas.