As king tides surged and gusty winds blew Thursday morning, waves slashed against San Diego beaches Thursday and some areas experienced some coastal flooding.
At the coast alone, high surf advisories, wind advisories, and coastal advisories are all active through Thursday. NBC 7 Chief Meteorologist Sheena Parveen says wave heights will be from 8-11 feet.
While this round of waves weren't anything like the surf event from last month that brought wave heights of 15 feet in areas along San Diego’s beaches, there are still multiple factors of this forecast to consider, San Diego Lifeguard Lieutenant Jacob Magness said.
“The recent surf we had took away a lot of sand from our beaches so with this next set of King Tide and surf, it’s already going to have a head step coming up to the seawall and going into low-lying parking lots and streets and causing coastal flooding,” Magness said.
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And, that's exactly what happened Thursday morning. Video showed some coastal flooding in Imperial Beach and Mission Beach.
There's a possibility for more wild beach weather Friday morning as well, but the high tide event commonly known as king tides was on its way out.
Local
Andrew Meyer, director of conservation for the San Diego Audubon Society says they are these king tides were the highest tides of the year.
“When the tide comes in where we are in the northeast corner of Mission Bay, it will transform completely,” Meyer said. “In this particular place, Kendall-Frost Marsh will disappear.”
Caused by stronger than normal gravitational pull from the moon and sun, King Tides bring both high tides and low tides. The King High Tides will be Thursday morning at 8:20 and Friday morning at 9:04.
”As King Tides completely transform it, you’ll see different species and a lot of those species will be on the very edge of the habitat because that’s all they have left,” Meyer said.
A chance to see birds, fish and more you can't usually see
That wide range of high and low tides gives spectators a chance to see birds, fish, and invertebrates they might not normally see. For those who come to the coast over the next two days, you might see rays and guitarfish, too, Magness saod.
While Meyer calls the tides dynamic, he also acknowledges the implication of sea level rise they have at our coastline.
“It’s really important that we get out and take pictures and photograph and talk about those changes that are happening to our preserves,” Meyer said.
According to Meyer, Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve is the last 40 acres of tidal wetlands on Mission Bay.
“It’s also really scary to know that kind of habitat and that kind of change is what’s going to be more and more common,” Meyer said.
He explained that species in these marshlands could eventually have their habitats move closer to the coast.
“Which is great for looking at and observing it also means that they lose this habitat, and they can come closer and closer to our pollution, noise, cats, predators,” Meyer said. “So it’s a neat way to see them but again the underlying thing is what the future could do and how to survive in the coming decades.”
The San Diego Audubon Society is hosting an event on Friday at Kendall-Frost Marsh from 8 to 10 a.m. The event is free to the public and will provide an opportunity to learn how to document and report King Tides.
A warning for surfers
While last month’s high surf event drew a crowd, Magness said surfers shouldn't expect this next event to be like that. He recommends keeping a safe distance off the sand.
“Stay off the beach,” Magness said. “There won’t be much beach anyways so stay well back.”
He added that the conditions won’t draw surfers out either.
“You’re not going to see any surfers out there tomorrow,” Magness said. “It’s not that type of surf, this is all going to be stormy, wind-driven surf.”
The Mission Bay Channel was closed during the December round of high surf. Magness told NBC 7 it can’t be closed ahead of time but it will be closely monitored.
“If we see that waves are breaking across the channel and we see that it’s a hazard to navigation, then we will work with The Coast Guard and close down the channel,” Magness said.
