Record-high tides expected in Malibu next week Play

The highest high tides in 102 years of recorded history are predicted for Malibu for the middle of next week, according to the National Weather Service.

This weekend's Santa Ana winds will be very mild. On the horizon, there is a growing potential for a significant storm system toward the end of next week, and a rainy Halloween in one week.

But the big story is the ocean. The El Niño push of warm water from the equator, shoved against the Americas, has already created a Kelvin Wave sea level increase of as much as 1.5 feet at all hours in the Los Angeles area.

Add that to the astronomical tides, based on the pull of the moon, and high tides next week will nudge up to just under 8 feet. The good news is that surf predictions are for waves on the low side of the scale.

The NWS says "Monday through Wednesday could produce the highest tides on record — the current record at San Pedro is 7.93 feet set on Jan. 10, 2005, with records going back to 1924."

But how high will the waves be on top of this? Expect waves of about 2 to 3 feet, "on the low end," said the NWS.

Wednesday is the day to watch, as computer predictions show that's when swell from a Southern Hemisphere storm is expected to arrive.

"The majority of computer projections keep this wave energy on the small side, but a couple are a little larger," cautioned the NWS Oxnard office in its analysis, published early Saturday.

But notwithstanding any south swell, "minor coastal flooding is likely purely based on the high tides," the NWS analysis said.

"While these tides might be the highest of all-time, similar extreme tides in the past tell us that coastal communities should expect shallow flooding of harbor walkways, beach parking lots and bike paths.

"With swells and surf on the lower-end during these extreme tides (2-3 feet), the threat of more damaging impacts should be limited to the most vulnerable areas that have little-to-no sandy beach left and have already seen water damage," the NWS said.

High tides next week are:

• 7.4 feet at 8:45 a.m. Sunday

• 7.7 feet at 9:19 a.m. Monday

• 7.9 feet at 9:55 a.m. Tuesday

• 7.8 feet at 10:35 a.m. Wednesday

• 7.6 feet at 11:21 a.m. Thursday

• 7.1 feet at 12:17 a.m. Friday

Tides settle down over next weekend, and high tides shift to evenings in 9 days.