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Vue lecture

A California town’s beaches are washing away. Can its residents turn the tide?

Rapid coastal erosion threatens coastal homes and economies, and as Super El Niño rounds the corner, a town is reckoning with the reality of climate crisis

San Clemente is one of southern California’s most picture-perfect beach towns – a capital of American surf culture since the 1950s. In two years, 2028 Olympic surfers will compete at Lower Trestles, a world-class surfing beach.

But the town’s longtime cultural and economic driver, its beaches, are now under threat. As pounding waves driven by late-summer storms in the Pacific devour chunks of the California coastline, some of San Clemente’s beaches are growing narrower, the sand increasingly eaten away.

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© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

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El Niño Threatens Global Sugar Supply

A sugarcane crop withered by El Niño in India, the world’s second-largest producer, is hurting consumers and farmers — plus undermining the country’s energy security goals.

A worker tending to a sugarcane crop in Maharashtra, India, in September.
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US winter is likely to be wetter and warmer, forecasters say, with more snow in the south

El Niño will likely shift weather patterns to bring more rain, but much snow still isn’t forecast for the northern states

Winter in the United States looks like it will generally be wetter and warmer, but not necessarily snowier, according to the federal government’s seasonal outlook and other meteorologists’ forecasts. You can thank or blame El Niño.

El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns to bring more moisture, but with it higher temperatures. That should help erase persistent western drought, but it is unlikely to make northern snow-lovers happy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

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Intense waves and floods batter California waterfront homes and boardwalks

Boardwalk destroyed in Long Beach and homes damaged, while Baja California in Mexico and Las Vegas also affected

Southern California coastal communities are picking up the pieces after a weekend of extreme weather brought flooding that overtook city streets and intense waves battered beachside homes.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel hit Mexico’s Baja California over the weekend as well as southern California and Las Vegas. While meteorologists noted that Rachel weakened into a post-tropical cyclone as it approached California, it still left a trail of destruction.

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© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

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‘A living hell’: how Los Angeles got taken over by mosquitoes

Heat and humidity have led to one of the worst mosquito years in recent history, with West Nile virus at a decade high

Los Angeles might be best known for blue skies, beaches and film premiers — but for the last several years it’s held another, unenviable distinction: the most mosquito-infested city in America.

And this year has been especially nightmarish, thanks to a series of heatwaves and an extra-powerful El Niño. Locals have called it a summer of “living hell” as clouds of mosquitoes swarm backyards and leave diners at open air patios scratching their ankles.

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© Photograph: REUTERS

© Photograph: REUTERS

© Photograph: REUTERS

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