Water pounded Santa Barbara’s coastline on November 6 for the first king tides of the year — flooding beaches and parking lots and jumping the walls of usually dry lookouts at places like Butterfly Beach and Campus Point.
This weekend marks round two of these extraordinarily high tides, which occur when the sun, moon, and Earth align, pulling the surf to extreme highs and lows. They are typically at least one foot above the average high tide, according to the California Coastal Commission.
Santa Barbara is expected to see tides up to 7.23 feet high each morning from Thursday, December 4, through Saturday, December 7. The royally high tides will inundate beaches from Goleta to Ventura and have the potential to damage property and other infrastructure.
It’s a glimpse of the future, says the commission and Santa Barbara environmental groups. Scientists project ocean levels in California will rise as much as 1.2 feet by 2050 and up to 6.6 feet by the end of the century due to the planet’s warming climate…