A tsunami advisory was downgraded to a watch for Southern California coastlines after little activity was seen overnight, but weather experts warned that fluctuations in the tide could continue throughout Wednesday, July 30, following an 8.8-magnitude earthquake near Russia.
Weather experts said Los Angeles and Orange county beaches started seeing the effects around 2 a.m.
But police in coastal cities that picked up the phone reported no activity or calls for service to the water.
“We had patrols on the beach to maintain safety and enforce the closure,” said Lt. Brian Smith of the Huntington Beach Police Department, but as for changes in the water, “nothing noticeable from our perspective.”
That city was among at least a handful that shut down its beach. Other municipalities that did so included Long Beach, Marina del Rey, Laguna Beach and Seal Beach, including its pier.
Along Los Angeles County coastlines, the National Weather Service was seeing tide fluctuations of a little over a foot such as in Santa Monica as of about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“These fluctuations are probably going to be with us most of the day today, and they’re probably going to vary as far as height,” he said.
“It’s not so much like a big wave of height that crashes down, it’s more like a tidal surge, like the daily ebbs and flows of the tides,” Kittell added, “except the difference in this case is it happens in 30 minutes instead of six hours and it can create really strong currents in the harbors — that’s what can cause issues.”
While the National Weather Service doesn’t have tide gauges in Orange County, a gauge in La Jolla had fluctuations as high as eight-tenths of an inch, said Miguel Miller, another National Weather Service meteorologist.
“Right now we’re in a low tide trough,” Miller said. “But this afternoon around 1 or 1:30 p.m., it’ll have a high tide. By then, we hope these fluctuations go down.”
Police in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach reported no overnight issues.
“We didn’t see any coastal flooding or noticeable changes on our beaches,” Hermosa Beach Officer Keaton Dadigan said. “We’ll still have our patrol officers doing extra security checks on the water line for coastal flooding or other hazards.”
While Kittell said the potential for water to get too far inland is pretty small, weather experts were still concerned about the harbors.
“I think that’s probably the main message, is really for folks to stay out of the harbors, stay off the rocks and jetties and really stay off the immediate coast,” Kittell said. “Every specific location might have very localized phenomena, so people should be listening to their local emergency officials.”