The role of El Niño Southern Oscillation in driving coastal hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Since the 1982–1983 major El Niño event, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been suspected to be a major driver of coastal hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW). However, the limited availability of observations, combined with the diversity of ENSO characteristics, has led to significant challenges constraining the teleconnections between ENSO effects and hazardous impacts on the coast. Defining these teleconnections provides key insight into internal climate dynamics and will inform hazard management. Here, we used a stochastic climate emulator to probabilistically assess the role of ENSO phase, ENSO strength, and synoptic weather in driving flooding and erosion hazard proxies on the U.S. PNW coast. When compared to the last 45 years of observations, our simulations suggest that ENSO is not necessarily a strong predictor of cross-shore coastal hazards in the PNW, and instead, indicate that the relationship between ENSO and coastal hazard teleconnections is more complex than previously believed.