When might we see more flooding?<\/p>\n
Kavanaugh couldn\u2019t say with certainty when flooding might occur, but noted that high-risk times ahead coincide with Thanksgiving and Christmas. Around then, the moon will be at its closest point to the Earth. The stronger gravitational pull from the moon causes what are commonly known as king tides, a nonscientific term<\/a> for the highest predicted tides of the year.<\/p>\n In addition to these factors, the wide range of events affecting our tides this year, including storms, climate change, El Ni\u00f1o and related Kelvin waves<\/a>, could very well cause other flooding events or cause the existing ones to become stronger.<\/p>\n Kavanaugh said a combination of factors \u2014 specifically Kelvin waves and astronomical high tides \u2014 was exactly what was responsible for the flooding seen this week.<\/p>\n \u201cThat could happen, perhaps, again in November and December if we have another pulse of a Kelvin wave,\u201d Kavanaugh said.<\/p>\n Flooding inundated coastal communities around Southern California this week, including Orange County’s Sunset Beach.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Robert Gauthier<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n How high will the tides be?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Kavanaugh said, there\u2019s no way to predict the severity of upcoming king tide events at this moment in time.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as we move closer to an event, there are good models that the National Weather Service uses to forecast flooding,\u201d she added. \u201cBut they need it to be within seven days, sometimes shorter timelines.\u201d<\/p>\n High tide resources<\/p>\n These NOAA resources can help you plan for and monitor high tide events:<\/p>\n How to prepare for high tide conditions<\/p>\n Kavanaugh recommended keeping an eye on National Weather Service reports for the latest information and predictions. (There are separate pages for Los Angeles<\/a> and Orange<\/a> counties.)<\/p>\n Kavanaugh stressed that, given this year’s unpredictability so far, people should be as prepared as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s an unusual type of phenomenon to plan for for some communities,\u201d she said. \u201cWe’re used to planning for a big storm, maybe, and flooding from that, but not planning for, \u2018Oh, it’s gonna be beautiful sunny weather, and also you might have flooding on the roads.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Kavanaugh also recommended paying close attention to local emergency officials\u2019 guidance and being mindful not to park cars in low-lying areas that could end up being inundated.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [local officials are] asking you to get sandbags or things like that, keep those sandbags because you might need them again in a few weeks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How much more coastal flooding does SoCal have in store? Forecasters can’t put an exact number on how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[62241,10648,46269,180739,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-513740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-coastal-flooding","tag-el-nino","tag-high-tide","tag-kelvin-wave","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793419095_16_.jpeg\")
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