By Liz Kreutz and Evan Bush -
NBC News
A series of heavy rains has accelerated landslides and contributed to coastal erosion in California, pushing multimillion-dollar homes on the edge of cliffs, tossing 100-foot palm trees into the sea and forcing the closure of a historic chapel.
For now, it has stopped raining in the state, but the effects of the second season of extreme rains could be felt for years.
Climate change, which is intensifying precipitation levels, rising sea levels and worsening droughts, is influencing some of the forces beginning to change California's landscape.
This season's storms have offered Californians a dramatic revelation and a preview of the consequences of a warming world, as processes considered slow and that scientists have long warned about have accelerated in plain sight.
Mike Phipps, a geologist with the geotechnical engineering firm Cotton, Shires and Associates, said the risk of landslides and rising sea levels are combining to
transform the California coastline
.
Houses on Scenic Drive, on the edge of a cliff in Dana Point, California, on February 16, 2024. Qian Weizhong / VCG via Getty Images
“The coast runs many risks,” he commented.
“As those cliffs recede, buildings are threatened.
“There have been situations throughout California where homes have been swept away and others have fallen into the sea.”
Two years ago, 100% of the state was mired in drought and desperately needed rain, according to the National Drought Monitor.
Now, only small areas of the state – 7% in total – are considered “abnormally dry” and residents of the state are calling for the torrential rains to stop.
The change began last winter, when more than a dozen atmospheric rivers lashed the state with precipitation, providing relief from drought and saturating the state's foothills with moisture.
This year,
the extreme weather has continued
.
This month, downtown Los Angeles has recorded more than 12.5 inches of precipitation, four times its typical monthly average and nearly double what it rained in all of 2022, according to data from the National Weather Service.
The rainfall has brought some slopes to the point of collapsing.
During the most recent storm, the city of Los Angeles said it had received 63 reports of rivers of debris or landslides.
After a more severe storm earlier this month, the city said it had received calls reporting 592 landslides.
At least 16 buildings have been “red marked,” meaning people have been prohibited from entering due to the risk they pose.
“When you have this constant bombardment of storms, you are most likely to accumulate water on the slopes and
that increases the chances of having mudslides
,” explained Nate Onderdonk, a professor and geomorphologist at California State University, Long Beach.
A person looks at the remains of a house that was destroyed by a landslide in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, on February 6, 2024. David McNew / AFP via Getty Images
In the community of Rancho Palos Verdes, a city on the coast of Los Angeles County that is prone to landslides, recent rains have accelerated land movement and caused landslides in places where they had not been reported before, according to a statement of the city press.
Onderdonk explained that the sedimentary rock layers in the area are tilted towards the sea.
When weak layers of clay become saturated with water, they expand and often slide because they have very little friction.
The intense rainy season has accentuated and expanded the areas of concern.
Decades ago, geologists made a plan to drain the slopes of the Abalone Cove landslide zone, which significantly slowed the landslides, Onderdonk said.
But about a week ago, accelerating earth movement forced the closure of Wayfarers Chapel, a national historic monument designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in Abalone Cove.
“That caught my attention,” Onderdonk said.
“This is an area that had apparently been stabilized.”
With homes and roads in danger, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes has asked the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, to request
state and federal emergency declarations
, which could expedite emergency repairs through the permitting process.
Many coastal cities on the Californian coast are exposed to the risk of landslides.
Tarps cover the cliff behind a house overlooking Capistrano Beach in Dana Point, California.
NBCNews
Dana Point homes made headlines this week after the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets published drone footage showing large coastal homes over landslide areas.
Scientists continue to investigate how climate change will alter the frequency and severity of landslides.
A 2022 study published in the journal
Geophysical Research Letters
found that landslides are sensitive to changes in climate and
occur much faster in wet years than in dry ones
.
A 2019 study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society found that landslides coincided with atmospheric river storms about 76% of the time in the San Francisco Bay area.
Scientists say atmospheric river storms are becoming more frequent and intense on the West Coast because a warmer atmosphere can absorb and transport more water vapor.
California's cliffs are fighting more than just gravity.
Rising sea levels and more intense storms are taking a toll on the state's beaches and coastline, something climate scientists have warned about for years.
With sea levels rising due to climate change, Southern California could lose up to two-thirds of its beaches by 2100, according to a report from the United States Geological Survey.
Global warming,
caused by human use of fossil fuels
, is the main cause of sea level rise.
Melting glaciers and polar ice caps are raising sea levels.
The volume of ocean water also increases as its temperature rises.
It is a dynamic that has caused many to see how the space on their beaches is reduced.
Following the latest round of storms in California, Dana Point resident Edward looks out at his seaside home amid concerns about landslides and beach erosion.
NBCNews
Owners Edward and Debbie Winston-Levin, who live in Dana Point, California, in a house overlooking Capistrano Beach, said they have seen how the sea has moved over the years.
“There used to be a volleyball court and a basketball court that have been eroding,” explained Edward Winston-Levin, 77 years old.
“And on a day with high waves, the sea covers the parking lot.”
They worry that their property, located on a steep slope, could one day slide into the sea.
“If a landslide starts, it will continue, we will lose our houses with beautiful views," he said.
Many coastal cities
are making drastic changes to try to adapt
.
In San Diego, the coastal city of Del Mar plans to move railroad tracks, which are now considered too close to the coast.
And in San Clemente, the state plans to build a $7.2 million wall to fortify a slide zone in an effort to stop hillside slides, which have forced the closure of rail service through Orange County.
In Isla Vista, near the University of California, Santa Barbara, a cliff collapse recently forced students to evacuate their homes and now several of those buildings are being built further from the coast.
Experts believe this changing landscape could pose a dilemma: save the state's iconic beaches or wall them off to protect cliffside homes.
“It's a very complex issue,” Phipps said.
“Obviously, Californians love their beaches and everyone will want to preserve them, and there will be places where that is possible, but in many places,
the beaches are being narrowed and lost
.”