Southern California will once again see unusually high tides beginning early Sunday morning that threaten to flood streets in Orange County, Long Beach and other areas recently embattled by giant waves.
Read more ‘He saved my life’: Amid house fire, Laguna Woods woman credits neighbor’s action
Low-lying beach areas are expected to flood, with high tides rolling in between 7.5 and 8 feet during the early morning hours Sunday, and continuing through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. That’s about 1 to 1.5 feet higher than normal.
The San Pedro beaches could see some of their highest ever waves on record between Monday and Wednesday, the NWS said. The current record at San Pedro is 7.93 feet set on Jan 10, 2005, with records going back to 1924.
The NWS said that “moderate to significant beach erosion” is likely. The high tides are expected to begin at 5 a.m. Sunday and continue through 1 p.m. Thursday.
A NWS map of coastal flood advisories issued at 1 p.m. Saturday extends from well north of Los Angeles County — the Cambria area — down to the harbor areas in San Pedro and Long Beach, nearly 250 miles to the south.
“Minor coastal flooding is likely purely based on the high tides. While these tides might be the highest of all time, similar extreme tides in the past tell us that coastal communities should expect shallow flooding of harbor walkways, beach parking lots and bike paths,” the NWS said.
It warned residents of flooding in beach parking lots, along bike paths and harbor walkways: “Isolated damage of structures due to seawater inundation is possible to the most vulnerable areas.”
Carol Ciliberti said that the National Weather Service is forecasting that the peak high tides will happen just after 8 a.m. on Sunday, and build up to 11 a.m. on Thursday.
The forecasts, based on information provided by tide prediction models from the National Oceanic and Atmomspheric Administration, show that tides in the Los Angeles harbor will reach 6.36 feet at 8:48 a.m. on Sunday, 6.66 feet on Monday, 6.8 feet on Tuesday (9:18 a.m.), 6.75 feet on Wednesday (10:31 a.m.), 6.49 feet on Thursday (11:16 a.m.) and falling to 6.06 feet on Friday (12:11 p.m.)
However, because the ocean waters are so warm, Ciliberti said, the tides end up being much higher by about 1.3 to 1.4 feet – which is how NWS gets to the 7.5 to 8 feet high tide forecasts. She pointed to calculations provided by NOAA on the federal agency’s Tides & Currents website.
The stations that forecast water levels and meteorological stations are located in Santa Monica, the L.A. harbor area and San Diego.
Read more 2026 Election: Orange County voters can now cast their ballots in person
Perhaps because of the balmy weather, the Long Beach Fire Department wasn’t seeing many people filling up sandbags at four fire stations on Saturday.
“I don’t have an estimate on how many people showed up,” Jake Heflin, assistant chief with the Long Beach Fire Department, said. “When the rains are coming, people will often show up. When it’s clear outside, like right now, no one shows up to get sandbags at our stations.”
In preparation for rain and high tides this week, the fire department is distributing sandbags at Fire Station 7, 2295 Elm St.; Fire Station 12, 1199 E. Artesia Blvd.; Fire Station 13, 2475 Adriatic Ave.; and Fire Station 14, 5200 E. Eliot St.
Some residents along the Balboa Peninsula in Orange County showed little concern about what Sunday’s expected high tide could bring, though others worried if the damage could equal or exceed previous flooding.
Dozens of people near Balboa Pier sat atop the berms lining the beach, enjoying the sunshine and mild fall weather. Handfuls more scaled down the other side of the berms to take a dip in the ocean.
In Long Beach, temperatures in the city’s Inner Harbor hit the upper 70s on Saturday afternoon, with wind speeds reaching 7-10 mph, according to US Harbors.
Earlier this month, hide tides from Tropical Storm Rachel pounded into Long Beach’s Peninsula community, damaging the city’s historic boardwalk and bulkhead and ripping into homes along the Peninsula.
City crews are ready with portable pumps to help deal with intruding water in the affected areas of the beach community, Heflin said Saturday.
He encouraged Long Beach residents to sign up for alerts to keep up with weather conditions and potential impacts from rising tides at Long Beach Alert.
Read more Santa Ana voters deciding 3 council races and the mayor
Staff writer Sydney Barragan contributed to this report.