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From first users to billions: Google’s Robby Stein joins TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Lean in on this Builders Stage session. Save up to $200 before Sept 25.

The Pentagon on Friday told congressional leaders that the Iran war has so far cost American taxpayers $43.6 billion, Punchbowl News reported, a whopping $5 billion more than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in a report earlier last week. To put that number into perspective, it would have cost $30 billion for Republicans to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies for a year.

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A datacenter's cooling architecture can have a decisive effect on its water and energy use, according to Schneider Electric, which argues that operators should evaluate it early in the design process. In a white paper published today, the energy management specialist compares four modeled 100 MW datacenter designs, ranging from traditional air cooling to optimized liquid-cooling systems. The paper, "Water Usage at AI Scale: Insights from a 100 MW Comparative Analysis," concludes that moving from air to liquid cooling consistently improves energy efficiency and can reduce water consumption in constrained locations. Schneider has a commercial interest in that conclusion. It acquired a 75 percent controlling stake in liquid-cooling specialist Motivair in 2024 and said it intended to buy the remainder by 2028. The assessment also models the effect of location by applying the four designs to the annual weather profiles of Paris, France, and Dallas, Texas. Schneider's model puts the highest onsite water consumption at a traditionally air-cooled facility in Dallas. Switching to liquid cooling with coolant supplied at 45°C (113°F) reduces water use by at least 50 percent, it claims. The firm says the results demonstrate how location, operating temperature, and cooling architecture determine a facility's water requirements, even as rack densities and the demands of power-hungry AI systems increase. Water consumption is determined largely by the equipment used to reject heat outside the data hall, the report says. For a facility of equivalent size, Schneider claims cooling towers can consume five to 20 times as much water as dry coolers. The first scenario uses air cooling. The second uses liquid cooling supplied at 32°C (about 90°F), which Schneider says is representative of early AI datacenters. The third retains the same cooling equipment but raises the supply set point to 45°C (113°F). The fourth design reduces the equipment count by sizing the cooling system specifically for operation at 45°C. Schneider says this avoids excess capacity and lowers capital expenditure. Higher coolant temperatures produce "substantial additional water savings," the report says, because they extend the range of conditions in which cooler outside air can reject heat without mechanical chilling. The paper recommends assessing water consumption early in the design process and considering alternative sources to reduce demand on supplies used by local communities. The issue is particularly contentious in the US, where datacenters' water consumption has tripled in a decade and local opposition to new projects is growing. In the UK, meanwhile, the government has been accused of overlooking water demand while promoting the construction of more AI server farms. Schneider cautions that water and energy efficiency must be evaluated together. The best design will depend on the relative importance of power usage effectiveness (PUE) and water consumption, as well as local energy and water costs. ®

President Donald Trump announced that he wants to build a military complex in a public traffic circle—as part of a strange bid to save his plans for his Triumphal Arch.

Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday that he plans to build a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch” in order to store and launch drones that would be guarded by snipers. The president claimed the project came “at the strong request of the United States Military” and was for “National Security purposes.”

It was immediately clear that this was a terrible idea.

Virginia Representative Don Beyer called Trump’s plan “idiotic,” and pointed out that establishing a drone launching site so close to Ronald Reagan National Airport was incredibly dangerous. FWIW, planting snipers in an active traffic circle doesn’t sound like a great idea, either.

The decision to loudly declare the construction of a military storage facility within spitting distance of the Pentagon also doesn’t seem like the best way to safeguard national security—so what exactly is Trump up to?

Trump’s announcement comes after the National Park Service warned that the Triumphal Arch would be harmful to other historical landmarks, including the nearby Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.

Similarly to Trump’s controversial White House ballroom, which he claimed will provide a secure underground facility in case of a national emergency (even though one already exists), it appears that the president believes that tying his frivolous construction projects to national security will help them actually get built.

But Trump’s reason for all these construction projects is much more pathetic: He thinks that no one will honor him after he’s gone.

Quick Take

• Kit Harington is still open to the idea of doing a Game of Thrones sequel series following Jon Snow.
• Harington told Happy Sad Confused podcast that he feels more comfortable returning to the character of Jon Snow and this universe after some time away.
• Nerdist’s Take: Sure, people would watch a Jon Snow sequel, but we really don’t need one. Let it go!

Sometimes, a spinoff series can work, even when it should’ve happened years ago. Agatha All Along managed to accomplish this with a successful series that came four years after WandaVision. And, VisionQuest hopes to do the same this year. But, this is also Marvel that we are talking about. Other franchises usually don’t have such luck, especially when the overall universe has far moved past those characters and there’s no real need for more story. That’s the case with Game of Thrones and the Jon Snow sequel that never was. For some reason, Kit Harington believes a Jon Snow spinoff series could still work and we just wish everyone would leave that in the past. 

HBO

Back in 2022, there was news about a Jon Snow series being in development. It was supposed to follow him after the events of Game of Thrones as he lived in exile beyond the Wall after killing Daenerys. But it seemed to never quite leave that stage as we moved on to spinoffs like House of the Dragon. Harington spoke about it on Happy Sad Confused’s podcast, saying that the show was developed and he feels like it could be a good time for him to return to the role. 

“We developed it two years or so,” Harington said. “I still think there’s a world in which something could work. I wouldn’t have gone into it in the first place if I didn’t. But I was very insistent at the start — as was HBO and George R.R. Martin — of like: ‘If we don’t find the right thing, let’s not do it. It’s much better if we don’t.’ After a little while of of thinking about it — it kind of was me — [I said], ‘This isn’t quite the right [story].’” 

RELATED ARTICLE

Kit Harington on Awkward Kiss with GOT Sis Sophie Turner

He said that he felt more comfortable with the character and returning to the role at this point in his life. Of course, we can’t hate on him for wanting to return to a universe that will certainly make him lots of money. There are a lot of Jon Snow fans who would want to see this. But, to be honest, it just feels unnecessary at this point. Fans are into House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and want fresh stories in Westeros with new characters. Game of Thrones told its complete story and ended in 2019. Let it go. Please.

Tai Gooden is the Features Editor for Nerdist, a fictional villain apologist, and a horror aficionado who is forever waiting for her trip in the TARDIS.

The post Kit Harington Thinks a Jon Snow Sequel Could Still Work (…Sigh) appeared first on Nerdist.

The entire presidential television press pool has agreed to suspend their coverage in the wake of President Trump’s decision to ban CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House.

The TV press pool specifically is made up of five networks: Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. The networks rotate their coverage, and CNN had been assigned to cover Trump on Monday. But a White House email on Sunday listed neither CNN nor any of the other networks as TV pool. Indeed, all five networks have banded together to protest the ban on CNN.

That means none of the major outlets will broadcast Trump’s visit to New York on Monday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this week. Conservative outlet Real America’s Voice—host of The Charlie Kirk Show—will be the only station working in the out of town pool and traveling with the president.

”This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” said Fox News’s Bryan Boughton, who serves as television pool chair. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”

The five networks later released a joint statement.

“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government,” it read. “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

CNN, Politico, and MS NOW have already filed a lawsuit against Trump’s ban, writing Monday that “without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

“This is not a tantrum by three media outlets who are upset because they can’t get into the White House or the Oval Office.... This is a serious concern for the public, because an attack on one outlet is an attack on everyone, no matter where that outlet falls on the political spectrum,” CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang said Sunday on Fox News. “America cannot have state TV.... That’s what makes America America.”

This story has been updated.

Meet the next wave of VCs judging the Startup Battlefield 200 contenders on the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register by Sept 25, 11:59 p.m. PT, to save up to $200 and to get a front-row seat to one of the most intense startup pitch competition.

Moments before Donald Trump banned three of America’s biggest news organizations from the White House Friday, he was chatting with Natalie Harp.

His beloved executive aide had reportedly shown Trump a compilation of coverage from MS NOW in which several broadcasters flamed Trump’s administration. The president was already irate that his executive decisions (most notably, the financially deleterious and illegal Kennedy Center rebrand) did not have more defenders, but the clips pushed his mounting frustrations to a “fever pitch,” The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Hours later, Trump banned MS NOW from the White House, alongside CNN and Politico.

The unprecedented move caught most of the White House by surprise, according to sources that spoke with the Journal. Nonetheless, they immediately got to work putting Trump’s plan into action. By Saturday, the outlets’ reporters were officially barred.

A White House official noted that senior staffers were with the president when he made the announcement. One senior official was exasperated when they spoke to the Journal, remarking that the ban would do little to improve the tone of Trump’s press coverage.

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

Trump did not identify specific stories that he felt fell into that category, though earlier in the day, he lamented online that “CNN is so dishonest.”

“Everything they say is slanted against the Republican Party,” Trump wrote. “They are truly FAKE NEWS!”

Trump has floated the idea of banning news entities from the White House several times before, but he never actually went through with it. That was reportedly thanks to his aides, who were previously able to convince him that there were other, less obvious avenues to restricting access to the executive mansion, such as limiting reporters’ participation in the press pool.

But Trump has made it his mission since he first descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to sow public distrust in America’s news institutions. Time and again he has said the less-than-devotional coverage of his political campaigns, his fraudulent business practices, his dubious personal connections, and his presidential administrations are tantamount to “fake news.”

In recent years, Trump has aggressively pursued legal action against several major news entities, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, ABC News, and CBS News (as well as the broadcaster’s parent company, Paramount). He also sued the Des Moines Register, its parent company Gannett, and pollster J. Ann Selzer in December 2024, retroactively claiming that presidential polls the paper had published prior to Election Day were election interference.

Corridor focuses on SMBs, which it says traditional brokerages often overlook because small accounts generate lower commissions than larger accounts. 

Quick Take

• Hollywood needs a fixer who will do whatever it takes to get the job done in the new trailer for The Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth starring Brad Pitt.
• The sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood comes from director David Fincher and Netflix.
• Nerdist’s Take: As unlikely as The Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth might be, this trailer makes us think it might also be very good.

It’s still hard to believe a Quentin Tarantino film is getting a sequel directed by David Fincher, especially when it will also see Brad Pitt reprise his Oscar-winning role. But this Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood followup is definitely happening. We know because Netflix keeps releasing trailers for it. And the latest look at The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth makes us think as unlikely as this movie might seem, it might also be pretty good.

David Fincher directing a ’70s-style Hollywood noir featuring a charismatic character of dubious morality is very much “our jam.” We’re still just in shock that film is a follow-up to one of Quentin Tarantino’s best films. The fact this is a sequel doesn’t mean it can’t be great, though. The cast certainly is. While Pitt is reprising his cocky stuntman Cliff, a new unseemly group of figures is getting in on the fun. The film also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Matt Groove, and JB Tadena.

What is bringing Cliff back to the Hollywood limelight this time. According to Netflix, a story of “murder, blackmail, theft, extortion” will see Booth as a “fixer” solving problem his “unique (occasionally extralegal)” way. Here’s the film’s official description from Tudum:

He’s curious when he gets a call from talent agent Karen Crosby (Debicki), on behalf of her client, TV megastar Charlie Peters (Caan) — a man known for doing his own stunts. And he’s further entertained and intrigued when he meets other characters in Charlie’s world, from his knowing wife Toni (Gugino) to pro football champion turned screen star Roderick “Hot Rod” Harrison (Abdul-Mateen II). Then there are the Verdusco brothers ( Groove and Tadena), mysterious gangsters causing mayhem across the city. What was once a fairytale is now a crime story — a cocktail of violence, ambition, and desire that could only happen in LA.

Netflix

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth will race into action exclusively for two weeks in IMAX theaters on November 25. It will then kick into action on Netflix on December 23. We’re certain of it. This might seem like an unlikely sequel, but it’s definitely real.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @‌burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Brad Pitt Rocks ’70s Style in THE FURTHER MIS-ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH’s Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Beth Macy is a journalist by trade. Through books like “Dopesick” and “Raising Lazarus,” the 62-year-old has spent the past few decades interviewing and writing about Virginians, many of whom have been touched by the ongoing opioid epidemic. But now a lot of people “don’t want to talk about the opioid epidemic anymore because the country’s on fire,” she told Daily Kos in a virtual sit-down.

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Amazon has blocked Meta's new Muse AI agent from shopping on its website, apparently deciding that having someone else's bot wandering through customer accounts and placing orders is a step too far. The ecommerce giant cut off Muse after unsuccessfully asking Meta to prevent the personal AI agent from accessing its store, GeekWire reported. Users who try anyway are told that access by an "unauthorized AI agent" violates Amazon's Conditions of Use. The Register asked Muse to find the "best-reviewed ergonomic office chair," add it to our cart, and proceed to the final checkout screen. Muse reported: "Hit a snag: Amazon is showing an anti-bot wall that blocks automated browsers outright – the browser couldn't even get to the search page, so no chair was found or added. I didn't push past it, since the notice says continuing would violate Amazon's terms." Meta launched Muse in the US earlier this month as an agent capable of doing more than answering questions. It can act on a user's behalf by shopping, making payments, reading emails, and managing calendars. When a service does not provide a public API, Meta says Muse can operate it through a browser much as a human would. Amazon is not keen on that arrangement. The retailer told GeekWire that Meta had neither informed it that Muse would access the store nor obtained authorization. It also claimed that the agent fails to identify itself while browsing and appears to capture and store customer credentials. Amazon said Muse could also access account information, including a customer's order history, when instructed to do so. Meta says the Muse model cannot see users' passwords or payment methods. Credentials are instead held in secure storage and made available for authentication without being exposed to the model. The Register has asked both companies for further comment. Account security is not the only issue at stake. Amazon has spent much of the past year trying to keep rival AI agents away from its storefront. It took Perplexity to court over the Comet browser and has also moved to block shopping agents from Google and OpenAI. Amazon, of course, has shopping agents of its own. Alexa for Shopping researches products and makes recommendations, while Buy for Me purchases goods from other retailers' websites on a customer's behalf. Amazon says the latter identifies itself to those retailers and allows them to opt out. The company also has a financial reason to control the shopping trip: advertising. Amazon generated more than $68 billion in advertising revenue last year, helped by shoppers visiting its properties and viewing the products and sponsored placements displayed there. If outside AI agents take over product discovery, comparison, and purchasing, fewer shoppers may see Amazon's advertising or interact with its recommendation systems. Amazon is all-in on agentic shopping – provided it is Amazon's agent holding the credit card. ®

The man Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and wounded in Austin, Texas, in the middle of a DoorDash delivery was not allowed to see his wife before federal agents moved him to an undisclosed location.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, was delivering food at 1 p.m. when he encountered ICE agents, who reportedly shot him in the torso. It’s not confirmed what happened in the lead-up to the shooting, or what his condition is at this time.

“Today at 12:30, Wilber called his wife to tell her that he had been shot,” his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said in an interview with KHOU-11. “And he was yelling in agony, and the call cut off. That was all she knew.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch posted on X that the hospital did not allow Garcés Perez’s wife access to him or “meaningful details on his condition,” and ICE later moved him to an undisclosed location.

“We not only were lied to and told that he wasn’t there, but we were thrown off the hospital grounds by several officers who treated us as trespassers,” Lincoln-Goldfich told NBC News.

NBC News said that social media video showed a dark SUV stopping in front of a blue sedan, and a person exited the SUV. Three gunshots were reportedly heard as the person approached the sedan.

A DHS spokesperson said that Garcés Perez had a final order of removal and entered the country illegally during the Biden administration, but did not say if there was body camera footage or if Garcés Perez has a criminal record. His lawyer said he entered the country legally and had a valid work permit.

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 6:31 a.m..

Here’s what’s happening on the roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 6:30 a.m. on September 21

• A vehicle hit a pedestrian at 100 Crg12 in Watsonville / Pajaro at 6:26 a.m. today. Emergency services were on their way.
   
• South Highway 1 at Park Avenue in Capitola / Soquel is facing closures for paving work. The closure is expected to end at 7:01 a.m. on Nov. 19.
   
• There is one-way traffic control on North SR-236 at Boulder Brook Drive in San Lorenzo Valley because of pavement repair. This is expected to end by 1:59 p.m. today.
   
• Highway 9 at Pool Drive in San Lorenzo Valley has alternating lane closures because of bridge work. This will continue until April 30, 2027, at 6:59 a.m.
   

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Monday morning traffic: Pedestrian hit in Watsonville; Hwy 1 closed for paving appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Democratic nominee Cait Conley will face incumbent Republican Mike Lawler in NY-17, one of the nation’s most closely watched House races. Here’s where the candidates stand on the environmental issues defining the district. By Leana Carbonez for Inside Climate News The Hudson River bisects New York’s 17th Congressional District, with basalt bluffs lining its western bank 40 miles…

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CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are suing President Trump after he banned them from the White House on Friday. 

“We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” they announced Monday morning. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The outlets are suing the president and his top advisers, and asking a Washington, D.C., judge to quickly intervene to restore their access to the White House after they were denied entry on Saturday.

Trump quickly responded to news of the lawsuit just hours later. 

“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” 

This is a culmination of Trump’s long-waged war against the media, particularly with CNN.  He has already sued The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, ABC News, and CBS News for perceived slights and alleged inaccuracies—all while even more blatantly biased outlets like Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, and other right-wing networks are allowed unfettered treated with legitimacy and respect. 

Clop has discovered what life is like on the receiving end of an extortion demand after rival crew ShinyHunters hijacked its leak site and demanded an eight-figure payout. The takeover surfaced over the weekend, when Clop's dark web leak site displayed a large "DOMAIN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS" banner and the tagline "rooting your systems since '19 ;)." ShinyHunters told Reuters that it broke into the site on Friday by exploiting a vulnerability in the software powering it. The crew claimed this gave it extensive access to Clop's infrastructure. "We basically own them now," it said. Clop has not responded publicly, although two security researchers told Reuters that the clash appeared genuine. The Register has also viewed the defaced site, where ShinyHunters is posting increasingly colorful demands. According to ShinyHunters, the feud dates back to Clop's attacks on Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) customers last year. ShinyHunters claims it discovered the zero-day first, only for Clop to obtain the exploit and use it against corporate networks. It now wants a share of the proceeds. In a message posted on September 19, ShinyHunters demanded an eight-figure payment, claiming the sum represented 2.333 percent of its own net worth. A later update raised the demand to "all the money you made off the EBS campaign plus more AND WITH INTEREST." ShinyHunters also threatened to identify companies that allegedly paid Clop and publish the sums and Bitcoin addresses involved. ShinyHunters turned the screw again on September 21, warning that its demands would increase with every 24 hours that Clop failed to respond. It now also wants a public apology, because apparently having your dark web extortion site hijacked isn't embarrassing enough. Clop is one of the most prolific data extortion groups in cybercrime. The gang has spent years exploiting vulnerabilities in enterprise software to steal data and extort victims, most notoriously during the 2023 MOVEit campaign, which affected thousands of organizations and exposed information belonging to tens of millions of people. ShinyHunters has an extensive rap sheet of its own, having been linked to numerous large-scale data theft and extortion campaigns. Its latest target is rather more familiar with that business model than most. The potential damage to Clop goes beyond the defacement of its leak site. If ShinyHunters has the wider access it claims and publishes records of previous ransom payments, the fallout could extend to companies that believed paying Clop had kept their identities and negotiations private. For now, though, those claims remain unverified. There is also the small matter of Clop's reputation. Leak sites are intended to demonstrate that an extortion crew has both the stolen goods and control of its operation. Having yours hijacked by a rival and repurposed to demand money from you is not exactly a glowing advertisement. ShinyHunters says the price will continue rising every 24 hours until Clop responds. The extortionists have become the extorted. ®

For a better understanding of LLMs in general and the so-called “rogue a.i. agents” specifically, I highly recommend the work of Cory Doctorow, Ed Zitron, and Cal Newport. As always, if you find value in this work I do, please consider helping me keep it sustainable by joining my weekly newsletter, Sparky’s List! You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon, the content is the same. Don’…

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NASA has added almost $1 billion to SpaceX's commercial crew contract for three more Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station (ISS). The $946 million contract modification covers Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17, along with ground operations, launch, in-orbit services, return and recovery, cargo transportation, and lifeboat capability while the spacecraft is docked to the ISS. The addition brings the value of SpaceX's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to $5.92 billion. Whether there will be more remains unclear. NASA explicitly said the award does not prevent it from buying additional transportation services if needed. SpaceX has said it ultimately intends to retire Dragon and Falcon 9 in favor of Starship, assuming it can get the vastly larger vehicle operating reliably. NASA plans to retire the ISS around 2030 and use a SpaceX-developed vehicle to perform its controlled deorbit. NASA lists mission readiness dates in 2027 and 2028, with the contract's period of performance running through 2030. NASA awarded CCtCap contracts to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014. SpaceX has since flown numerous crews to the ISS. Boeing, not so much. The aviation giant's calamity capsule, Starliner, finally carried two astronauts to the outpost in 2024. They remained there until a SpaceX Crew Dragon brought them home after NASA decided that returning them aboard the Boeing vehicle posed too much risk. Starliner later returned safely to Earth without a crew. If these missions prove to be Crew Dragon's last hurrah, NASA and its partners will face a challenge in maintaining crewed access to low Earth orbit and the commercial stations planned to succeed the ISS. A report from NASA's Office of Inspector General identified multiple problems with the Starliner program and faulted both Boeing and the agency. SpaceX has had problems of its own, not least the explosion of a Crew Dragon capsule during ground testing in 2019. Starliner nevertheless earned its calamity capsule nickname through repeated uncrewed test failures and a 2024 Crew Flight Test that ended with the spacecraft returning without its astronauts. Despite the billions spent on Starliner, there is no guarantee that it will ever enter regular crew rotation service. Crew Dragon, meanwhile, could be approaching the end of its run, with one of these newly ordered flights potentially carrying the final astronauts to or from the ISS. ®

Part of Lank Tree Lane in Boulder Creek collapsed during heavy rain in February 2025. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

Santa Cruz County emergency resources

• Read the county’s El Niño guide for residents.
• Access the CruzAware portal to register for alerts (portal de registro en Español).
• See rainfall reports and water levels of local creeks and rivers on OneRain.

SANTA CRUZ >> Climate experts warn that California’s Central Coast will likely see an increased risk of severe weather events this winter as a result of a “very strong” El Niño weather pattern. Local officials are making preparations for potential flooding and erosion throughout the county.

“What we know to be true is that a single storm, or a collection of storms, can impact our community and our county significantly,” said Dave Reid, director of the Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience. While leaders can’t know exactly when or how the winter weather will pan out until it comes, Reid hopes that improved efforts in forecasting, infrastructure preparation and alerts will help residents stay safe.

El Niño, which is characterized by warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the South Pacific, typically brings an increased risk of extreme weather to many areas of California. But this year, “sea surface temperatures are as high as we’ve ever seen,” said Michael Beck, Director of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience. 

El Niños are typically forecasted when these sea surface temperatures are persistently 0.5 C° above normal for an extended period. However, this year temperatures have exceeded 2 C° above normal, prompting its classification as a “super” El Niño event. “That’s what’s really driving the concern about this year’s El Niño — the conditions for it to be an exceptionally strong one are there.”

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On top of stronger waves and storms, high water temperatures are expected to raise water levels by 6-12 inches. 

“We’re already seeing 9 [inches],” Beck said. He noted that this increase in water level is of particular concern when it coincides with king tides, the year’s highest tides expected during the winter, usually starting in November.

Powerful waves, higher sea levels and strong storms bringing lots of rain are all possible with El Niño, potentially affecting residents from Pajaro to Bonny Doon, Reid said. 

“Everybody in the county is subject to some level of impact,” he said.

Different regions in the county will each have their own localized risks to look out for. In coastal neighborhoods, high seas and strong waves mean a higher likelihood of coastal flooding, especially in less protected areas like Rio Del Mar. While many of these neighborhoods like Pleasure Point have armoring — reinforcements like sea walls or revetments designed to prevent coastal erosion — high wave energy is still expected to increase the risk of erosion.

Increased precipitation, on the other hand, means a higher risk for flood-prone low-lying communities near the Pajaro and San Lorenzo rivers as well as Corralitos creek. In the mountains, increased rainfall can cause soils to saturate, leading to a higher potential for landslides and road failures.

The Pajaro River levee failed in March 2023, displacing thousands of residents in Pajaro. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

While the county’s wet season can be expected to start around November as usual, seasonal rainfall is expected to be above average starting in December, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The county’s Community Development & Infrastructure Department is preparing roads in unincorporated county areas by clearing culverts, drains, bridges and roadside ditches to ensure water has a place to go. 

So far, county workers have completed about 215 miles of roadside ditch clearing, said Alex Sandoval, the department’s maintenance superintendent. The target is 250 miles of ditch clearing, which he hopes they’ll complete in the next month and a half.

“Ditch clearing is one of the biggest efforts that we can do to reduce flooding, reduce storm damage, and control water conveyances through our system,” he said.

Both Reid and Sandoval hope to improve the county’s ability to respond to major weather events. The last El Niño, which came in 2016, brought an estimated $9 million in damage to Santa Cruz County as a result of severe weather, while 2023’s atmospheric rivers caused an estimated $27 million in damages. 

Reid said his teams are putting more resources and attention into forecasting weather conditions and providing information to residents. They’ve used Measure Q money to develop monitoring tools for Corralitos Creek, which flooded in 2023. 

“That will give us an opportunity to communicate with the public faster and earlier, based on what we’re seeing from rainfall and storm and river response,” Reid said. His teams also expect to send more frequent alerts through CruzAware, a service that sends email and text alerts to Santa Cruz residents, to keep the community up to date on weather conditions. 

“First and foremost, I would say now’s the time to be prepared,” said Beck, the UCSC climate expert. “In all likelihood, this is going to be a very tough winter for us.” 

While getting ready for what could be a very destructive winter is essential to keeping residents safe, Beck also said that this El Niño season is an opportunity to think more long-term about preparing for effects brought on by climate change.

“This does give us a pretty good picture of what we’re likely to see in the coming future on a regular basis,” he said. 

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