Waves getting bigger off California’s coast as planet warms, research suggests

Large waves crash into a seawall in Pacifica, California, in January (Jeff Chiu/AP)

Waves are getting bigger and surf at least 13ft (about four metres) tall is becoming more common off California’s coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research that tracked the increasing height from historical data gathered over the past 90 years.

Oceanographer Peter Bromirski, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, used the unusual method of analysing seismic records dating back to 1931 to measure the change in wave height.