Everything to know about California high tides, king tides, Kelvin waves

High timing and just with the higher than normal tides. But what is kind of unexpected, Greg, we're kind of just in this new world right now because we're just seeing levels that we typically do not see this time of year. It's maybe maybe in December and into January. So we're showing you the graphic as you can see the left portion of your screen. That's the incoming tide. That's a sped up so you can clearly see what they call a flood tide. This is just within between about 11 a.m. to about 12 o'clock this morning. So as predicted that tide moving in rapidly when you maybe go Going for a walk this morning near the Bay Shore line. Tide didn't look too bad, but then quickly, within a short amount of time, the tide level's going up. So here you can see the tide projections. This is for today. Basically, we are going down. As you take a look at that time, just know that we're going down quickly to an extreme low tide at about 7 o'clock this evening. So all that high tide we have been talking about, it's going to kind of just move out quickly because we have to reach what they call a minus tide, a real low tide, coming up during the 7 o'clock hour. But then once again on a Wednesday, close to 1 o'clock, we're talking about a high tide and into Thursday and into Friday. So the coastal flood advisory has been extended until 5 p.m. Friday. Yesterday, Greg, we had the highest tide on record for the month of October. We will probably beat that for today. And we're going to have quite a few records to report across parts of the Bay Area. So just know we've been talking about these real inflated water levels. But what we're seeing right now, we would not expect to see in the month of October. Well, and Mark, not to be an alarmist here, but obviously you've been telling us about these Kelvin waves, plus the coming El Nino and the way the water's sort of been churning. We are not even into the winter season when we might see some rain and when we might see some of those king tides. What might that look like come this time in a couple of months? Yeah, that's interesting, Greg, because right now a lot of people are calling what we're dealing with right now king tides, right? But usually the king tide is reserved for the highest tides of the year. And that's when you have not only the moon being a part of the tidal swings, but then you have the sun a part of the tidal swings as well. So you get that real extra pull, and that leads to typically the extreme king tides we see later in the year. But just for reference, we're going to try something new. Greg, are you ready? I'm going to bring in my little fish tank right now. I'm ready. I'm taking you full so you can see all of it. Oh, gosh. Here we go. Okay. So here is my fish tank. I'm going to have to move around quite a bit. this is basically representing the bay. This is representing the ocean. Just to make it a little bit more realistic, we could add a little bit, make a little more blue out there, just to remind you that we are talking about the bay area, just the bay out there. Now, typically, if you were to look at a tide chart for today, excuse me right here, if you were to look at the tide chart today, can you see this, Greg? It would show 6.6 feet. When you're talking about a 6.6 foot high tide, That's pretty high, but you would not expect levels that we are seeing today, especially in portions of Marin County. So the 6.6, yeah, it's interesting, but you would not expect to see significant flooding out there. But with the National Weather Service, they're kind of changing around or sort of resetting the heights. And so we're kind of learning along as we go along the process as well. Because we've been talking about El Nino, we've been talking about the Kelvin waves. if you've been outside toward the coast swimming out there water temperatures have been well up above the average we don't have that chill that sting you know when you talk about you go in the ocean greg at least here in the bay area typically it's really cold um we don't have that chill because water temperatures are above normal and the Kelvin wave is a factor so that's 6.6 keep that in mind this is what they're actually projecting i lost my piece of tape but this is what they're actually projecting for today that's 6.6 up to a 7.9 so that that that just goes to show you we're talking about over and and with this in fact if we're talking about you know we're adding more water to the column right now just based on on the warm temperatures out there so that's what's happening right now the even the bigger concern could be later in the year because we talked about the sun the earth and the moon all in alignment we will have higher tides than this week so when you think about when you think about adding more water to the column our little our little ocean here is getting even deeper that will continue to increase the flood threat later in the year right now in fact we are looking out toward november december and to january in fact the highest tide of 2026 is at december 24th during the 10 o'clock hour in the morning hours so if we're seeing problems today, it'll be a lot more impactful, a lot more widespread, especially when you think about adding more water to the column and then adding a storm out there that could boost the storm surge. So this is just the beginning. We're going to have a lot of coastal flood advisories out there. San Francisco tide gauge, the highest on record, I believe, is 8.6 feet going back to 1983. I think we're clearly going to beat that later in the winter, the highest water height on record, all because El Nino, Kelvin waves, these warmer than normal ocean temperatures, and also we could have some storm surge kicking up that water height as well. So I don't know if my little aquarium ocean helped out with the visual there, but just know that 6.6 feet is 7.9 feet. So all of these, all the tide tables, and you go to the store get the tide book at the beginning of the year, those tide tables, those numbers are all going up based on reality what we're dealing with right now. Mark, first of all, thank you because I'm a visual learner, so that was perfect for me to understand what we're seeing. But listen, as we look at some of these pictures, obviously we're seeing Shoreline Highway that continues to flood. When we look at those pictures, I mean, the conversation has to be had, right? Because you've lived in Marin County a long time. I live in Marin County. This road always shuts down because of the flooding. This a real question about infrastructure in these coastal areas yeah and we've been we've been hearing you know about sea level rise we've been hearing a lot about this over the past few years to see you know i think we're thinking oh it's going to be a slow gradual process but it has been instant for us here in the bay area and keep in mind you know the the the visuals we're showing you Tam Junction Highway One in Mill Valley parts of Marin County um you know that that that area that bike path that is that is next to uh an area of where you have house boats out there so that you're building right on top of the water right next to it so you know it shouldn't be a surprise that we're having uh issues uh in that area but you know with last earlier this year i should say in january we had some real extreme tides out there that impacted highway 101 and actually shut things down and caused gridlock across across the city so i am expecting more of that. And I guess the only good thing is that tide, the tide table, it's all published. There's no guesswork. We know the time, we know the date. That's something we can plan around if you have to work a certain day or go on a trip and you don't want to be driving through flood water or something like that. It should not be a surprise. It's all published for you down to the minute. And I'll also say, you know, I was in Mill Valley with my kids over the weekend because these tides started to creep up Saturday and into Sunday and it was Sunday. We were just looking at the water levels in Mill Valley right near the shoreline there, and we were walking on a little bike trail, and I was just getting video of my kids, and they're playing around on their bikes. That little trail we walked on, Greg, within five minutes, we could not walk back because there was water. Water already pushed back on that we were getting our feet wet. So it's interesting because it seems like a slowly rising water height, but within a few minutes, within a few minutes we had to kind of get our get our shoes and socks wet kind of just going through that that trail because just within within a few minutes that water level raised raised rapidly and so I'm sure people are thinking about that as well and they look outside in the morning say nine or ten o'clock it doesn't look so bad right but within a couple hours it's a completely different world as those water heights continue to surge up. Yeah remarkable how quickly it can come up because that obviously caught a few drivers off guard those were the pictures we've been seeing earlier from Sky Fox. Mark, let's talk about very quickly, if we can. I know a lot of people have been eyeballing the forecast for Saturday, Halloween. I know you have little ones perhaps be trick-or-treating. I think there was some concern because I know we've been talking about models that show Southern California will get some wind and rain. Where we stand, I know that it's imperfect. We're still a few days out, but what people can expect for those trick-or-treaters from Halloween night in the Bay Area? No guarantees it's going to be dry just yet, but I will say the models are improving. They're definitely improving what at least the confidence and it looks like those chances are kind of coming down a bit. So we are trending in the right direction. I'd say maybe a slight chance of some rainfall late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. So most little ones will probably be in bed by then, but still we'll try to fine tune the timing and the probability. But it looks like we should be okay. No guarantees just yet, but it does not look like a stormy Halloween for us here in the Bay Area. Definitely some clouds and at most maybe a few sprinkles or maybe some misty drizzle or it could be completely dry as well. Okay, that is good news so far for the trick-or-treaters.