The New York Times, on Climate, 10 November 2026

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El Niño Is Hitting California Hard

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First came the flood. Then the fire. In a matter of weeks, neighboring cities in Orange County were battered by dueling disasters that laid bare the risks posed to California as the world warms. In early September, powerful waves from the Pacific Ocean began to wallop the houses along Beach Road, a ribbon of multimillion-dollar waterfront properties hugging the coast in the picturesque hamlet of Dana Point. Several factors conspired to create the strongest swell that anyone in the area can recall.

But a main culprit was El Niño, the natural climate pattern that typically happens a few times a decade and scrambles weather patterns worldwide. The current El Niño is dangerously strong. In California, it is elevating sea levels and creating more intense storms. A phenomenon known as a Kelvin wave — a huge, slow-moving pulse of warm water in the ocean that’s linked to El Niño — is raising sea levels as well. Dozens of Dana Point homes have been badly damaged.

Ten were deemed unfit for occupancy. Two were demolished. Among those that sustained severe damage was the modern waterfront home owned by Lori Torres, an entrepreneur who bought the house when she retired in 2019, fulfilling her lifelong dream to live on the ocean. In a matter of days, waves ripped away her patio and destabilized the foundation. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

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About this analysis

The New York Times reports that powerful waves driven partly by a strong El Niño and a Kelvin wave damaged dozens of homes in Dana Point, California, followed weeks later by a fire nearby. The visible text ties the disasters to the risks California faces as the world warms and gives concrete figures for the damage. The article is cut off after S13 by a paywall message, and nothing in the part that can be read misleads.

What it gets right

  • “laid bare the risks posed to California as the world warms”

    The Times links the flood and the fire to warming in its own voice, with no hedge, so the reader does not take these disasters as a matter of chance alone.

  • “El Niño, the natural climate pattern that typically happens a few times a decade and scrambles weather patterns worldwide”

    The Times explains El Niño accurately as a recurring natural pattern without presenting it as the cause of long-term warming, keeping the two separate for the reader.

  • “Ten were deemed unfit for occupancy.”

    The Times gives specific, countable harm to homes rather than vague talk of damage, so the reader can judge the scale of the event.

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