Oregon is getting hammered. A powerful atmospheric river swept across the Pacific Northwest this week, bringing flooding, landslides, and heavy coastal damage before the system turned south. Forecasters say another storm system is expected to reach San Luis Obispo County by mid-week, moving into Southern California by Friday, with more behind it.
This is how California’s storm season works. Oregon goes first. Then it comes here.
USGS oceanographer Sean Vitousek was already watching what happened in October, when San Francisco’s Embarcadero flooded on a clear, sunny day — no rain, no storm — just unusually high tides. “If you get large wave events coincident with the high tides, you’re in for a lot of damage,” Vitousek told The San Francisco Standard. The bigger concern, he noted, is what happens when a storm arrives on top of that.
This Winter Is Not a Normal Winter
A UC Davis Road Ecology Center report released October 22, 2026 laid out what California’s coast is facing. Sea levels along the state have already risen nearly a foot from climate change. A Kelvin wave — a pulse of warm ocean water moving along the coastline — could add another foot or more on top of that. Stack a storm and seasonal high tides on those conditions and water could reach two to three feet above current normal levels…