The waves along Central Coast can tell you a lot about our changing climate, and here s why.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant s Waverider Buoy has measured wave heights and periods since June 1983 and directions since June 1996 and is one of the longest continuous-wave monitoring stations along the West Coast.
Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) maintains an extensive network of buoys that monitor waves along the coastlines of the United States. You can view the historical wave data archive from Diablo Canyon and other stations at the CDIP database at https://cdip.ucsd.edu.
In the 36-plus years that the waverider buoys have been deployed off the Pecho Coast, the wave archive indicates about a 5 percent increase in longer-period wave events, linked directly to a pattern of more intense storms in the Northern Pacific with lower air pressures and stronger winds due to climate change.