RECORD KING TIDES SWAMP BOTH COASTS: Streets Turned Into Canals

Record-breaking high tides flooded coastal communities from Southern California to South Florida this week, driven by the full Hunter's Moon on October 26 converging with warmer-than-normal waters, a strong El Niño, and offshore patterns that lifted sea levels well above normal.

In Los Angeles Harbor, the high tide at San Pedro on October 26 hit just above 8 feet — an all-time record for a gauge with records dating to November 1923, beating the previous mark of 7.93 feet set on January 10, 2005. Reports put the following day's peak even higher, at roughly 8.18 feet, though some readings remain preliminary pending NOAA verification.

The flooding was widespread. In Southern California, streets and homes on Newport Beach's Balboa Peninsula flooded, parts of Pacific Coast Highway closed in Huntington Beach, and Huntington Beach declared a local emergency. San Francisco set a new October flooding record, and San Diego and Santa Monica also saw more than 2.5 feet of coastal flooding.

Florida was hit just as hard. Flooding was reported in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach, new high-tide records were set on four of the last five days in Miami, and the high tide at Port Canaveral was the highest non-tropical-cyclone water level ever recorded there since the gauge was established in October 1994.

The National Weather Service warned of significant coastal flooding in Southern California through Thursday, October 29, with tides forecast as much as 1.7 feet above normal full-moon predictions. Forecasters cautioned that higher astronomical tides are still to come later in the winter, meaning more coastal flooding is possible if storms coincide with king tides.