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High tides flooded part of Victoria Avenue at Channel Islands Harbor, and El Niño could bring more
Weekly average sea level ran above forecast in three California cities
Source: Los Angeles Times
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| San Diego | 1.4 ft |
| Los Angeles | 1.3 ft |
| San Francisco | 1.1 ft |
If you live near Channel Islands Harbor, last week's tides were hard to miss. Ocean water crested a rock wall and washed over part of Victoria Avenue near Hobie Beach, reaching residential driveways at the peak. Most of the flooding came from seawater flowing backward through the storm drain.
It wasn't just Oxnard. A record-hot ocean plus higher tides pushed sea levels to all-time highs in Los Angeles, San Diego Bay and Santa Barbara. Robbie Munroe of the National Weather Service in Oxnard said local waters have run "a foot to a foot and a half above what we would normally expect."
- Oct. 26 harbor high tide: 7.75 feet
- Oct. 27: just over 8 feet, as high as the gauge goes
- King tides: around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day
"If there was a storm right now, this would be much worse," said Michael Tripp, Ventura County's harbor director. Of all El Niño's risks to California, the weather service rates coastal flooding the most certain for later in the year.
The ocean is running hot as a strong El Niño builds
- 83%
- chance this El Niño is the strongest in the modern record
- 75.4 degrees
- at Scripps Pier in La Jolla on Saturday, a Halloween record
- 114
- homes and structures in Huntington Beach damaged by seawater
Source: Los Angeles Times
