El Niño on the Oregon Coast: Higher Water, Bigger Waves, Changing Shores by Hatfield Science on Tap
Type: Hybrid
Category: Learn
Solution Areas: Adaptation & Resilience
Regions: The Coast
Date: October 28, 2026 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Cost: Free
Hatfield Marine Science Center Oregon State University
Newport, OR
97365
For more than four decades, El Niño events have shaped our understanding of coastal hazards along the Oregon coast.
Previous major El Niño winters have been associated with elevated water levels, anomalous wave conditions, shoreline erosion, and widespread coastal impacts, establishing a strong link between Pacific climate variability and coastal hazards of erosion and flooding. With forecasts suggesting the potential development of very strong El Niño conditions during the coming winter, we are once again evaluating the vulnerability of beaches, dunes, infrastructure, and coastal communities to climate-driven coastal hazards.
In this talk, Peter Ruggiero and Jonathan Allan will discuss what happened in previous events and what we might expect this upcoming winter. They will also synthesize several recent studies tracing how large-scale climate variability translates into coastal hazards and how we plan on using the developing 2026–27 El Niño to test our hypotheses.
Onsite Details
Location: Hatfield Marine Science Center, Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, Carmen Ford Phillips Auditorium
Social hour: 5 to 6 p.m. Food and beverages are available for purchase.
Talk begins: 6 p.m.
Online Details
Join the webinar online from PC, Mac, iPad or Android.
Password: 349146
Join via audio:
+1 971 247 1195 US (Portland)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington, D.C.)
Meeting ID: 986 2031 2904
Did you miss a talk?
If you missed a talk – no worries. We have them recorded and posted in our Science on Tap playlist on Hatfield’s YouTube channel, along with dozens of research seminar presentations, video tours and more.
Science on Tap is a free, family-friendly event in a casual environment featuring a host of scientists talking about the latest ocean research.
This speaker series runs monthly from September to June. Look for new events on this page, our social media accounts, the Hatfield events calendar on the home page, or the OSU events calendar.