Record tides flood Southern California streets

Water from the Pacific Ocean washed into Southern California streets on Monday morning, flooding coastal neighborhoods from Newport Beach to Long Beach. The surge resulted from a combination of El Niño conditions, a marine heat wave, and a rare astronomical alignment of the moon and sun.

The San Pedro tide gauge recorded a level of 8.02 feet on Monday morning. This measurement broke the previous record of 7.93 feet, which had stood since January 2005. In La Jolla, officials measured the sea level at 7.75 feet, just below the local record of 7.81 feet set in 2015. Chandler Price, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, noted that higher tides are expected tomorrow, which could push the La Jolla station past its record.

Newport Beach experienced water levels of 8.3 feet on Monday, nearly two feet higher than the predicted high tide alone. City crews worked to pump out knee-high water and reinforce sandbags along the harbor side of the Balboa Peninsula. Georgia Rios, a spokesperson for the city, said approximately 25,000 sandbags were distributed over the weekend. She credited residents for grabbing sandbags and protecting their homes, which she said limited the amount of flooding damage.

Long Beach residents reported flooding along Bayshore Beach, Naples, and the Peninsula. The city’s breakwater protects the shore from western waves but allows waves from the south to strike a narrow stretch of the peninsula that has sustained damage this year. The National Weather Service issued a coastal flood warning for Orange and San Diego counties that remains in effect through Thursday afternoon.

Scientists explain that ocean temperatures are driving water levels 1.25 to 1.8 feet higher than astronomical tides alone. Surface temperatures at Scripps Pier reached about 73 degrees on Thursday, well above the average of 66 for this time of year. The weather service projects that water levels at Los Angeles Harbor could reach 8.1 feet on Tuesday.

Reinhard Flick, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, noted that the current tides coincide with peaks in the 18.6-year lunar node tidal cycle and the 4.4-year lunar perigee tidal cycle. These cycles arise from small changes in the moon's orbit. Scientists warn that if storms occur during upcoming king tides around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the coastal flooding risk will increase further.