Ocean water temperatures in Monterey Bay are now the warmest observed in more than 30 years — clear evidence of El Niño’s arrival on the Central Coast, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Researchers said the warming is partly due to Kelvin waves, a giant underwater swell that slowly delivers El Niño-associated warm water across the Pacific Ocean.
As many as three Kelvin waves have already moved up the California coast. Scientists tracking the phenomenon found a strong influx of warm water at depth, around 200 feet below the ocean’s surface, which is a “definitive signature of the arrival of El Niño,” researchers wrote in a recent post.
Researchers wrote that as of Oct. 26, the temperature reached 18.18 degrees Celsius — roughly 64 degrees Fahrenheit — “surpassing the time-series record high set on November 19, 1997, during a previous El Niño event.”…