Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the term \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d is just a colloquial way to describe a \u201cmore extreme than merely strong\u201d climate pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o is not something magical, it\u2019s not something new, that\u2019s never happened before,\u201d Swain said this week during his live-streamed \u201coffice-hours\u201d series.<\/p>\n
Swain said El Ni\u00f1os in 1982, 1997, and 2015 each resulted in \u201cvery different global effects\u201d \u2014 ranging from record rainfall, which caused some Peruvian<\/a> rivers to carry 1,000 times their normal flow in 1983, to severe drought in Ethiopia<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o,\u201d Swain said, will result in a temporary sea level rise of around 6 inches in California.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to add that number to climate change-caused sea level rise, which \u2014 depending on where you are in California \u2014 ranges from about 6 inches to a foot over the past century,\u201d Swain said.<\/p>\n Beyond sustained sea level rise, scientists expect major storms and flooding starting this winter. They predict that these storms will be particularly strong as the effects of El Ni\u00f1o compound with the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n Bay Area residents should expect \u201csignificant implications for coastal flooding [and] for wind and surf damage along the coast,\u201d Swain said, pointing to the large wave events in Santa Cruz <\/a>and the king tide flooding in Marin<\/a> last year as examples of what may be in store.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/03\/ElNino.jpg\")