California’s coastal bluffs and beaches look rugged, but they can be surprisingly fragile in the face of a powerful El Niño.
The state saw that in 1982-83, when storms amid one of the most destructive El Niño winters in California history battered the coastline with powerful waves and torrential rain, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in its wake. The storms coincided with elevated sea levels, high astronomical tides and very large waves delivered by repeated storms.
