High Surf Warning Issued for Today at County’s Beaches

High surf advisories were issued by the National Weather Service for Southern California beaches today, along with warnings to sightseers, surfers and fishermen to stay back from the water.

“Our biggest concern is for early Monday morning, when we’ll have a high tide of about six feet with waves on top of that of maybe six feet, and occasional sets of eight to 10 feet,” said meteorologist Michael Lewis of the National Weather Service.

“Right now, that doesn’t look as though it’ll be high enough to cause any real damage. But we’re advising people to stay away. Last year, we had seven deaths attributed to high surf in the Los Angeles area, three surfers and four people who were swept off jetties or piers.”

Lifeguards said they did not expect to have to close any Orange County or Los Angeles-area piers, however. This morning’s high tide will reach six feet about 9:15 in Orange County.

At Bolsa Chica State Beach, lifeguard Greg Scott predicted that the latest Arctic storm could result in tides high enough to cause minor flooding in the beach’s parking areas early today. But the only other property near the shoreline is a snack bar and some restrooms, both of which Scott said are set well back from the expected high tide line.

At Sunset Beach, Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol officials said they were not expecting any problem from the ocean swells spawned by the Gulf of Alaska storm. U.S. Coast Guard officials in Long Beach, likewise, said they were not expecting any problems along the Orange County coastline.

In Santa Monica, Los Angeles County Lifeguard Lt. Dick Heineman said it would take surf of about 10 to 12 feet on a tide of six to eight feet to close the Santa Monica Pier.

South-facing beaches, such as Malibu, where beachfront homes are vulnerable to high surf, are not expected to be damaged, lifeguards said.

The high surf warning was expected to pass quickly as the trailing edge of a cold front that was predicted to bring scattered showers to the Southland on Sunday night moves eastward today. Snow level in the local mountains will be above 8,000 feet.

The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and calm conditions through Friday--a contrast to Friday’s fierce winter storm, which brought rain, snow and cyclonic winds to Southern California.

“The weather should be improving by the end of the week and gradually warming slightly,” said Dan Bowman, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “But we may still get some unstable weather, because there’s so much energy in this storm in the Gulf of Alaska.”

Orange County residents should wake up today to partly cloudy skies and cooler temperatures, Bowman said. Highs through midweek should be in the mid-60s, with lows in the 40s inland and near 50 along the coast.

A high pressure system expected to build over Southern California today will keep a series of fast-moving storms in the Gulf of Alaska from dipping into the region, at least through Friday, Bowman said. And that same system should clear out the partly cloudy skies by midweek and leave Orange County sunny.

Sunday was also a nice day across much of Orange County, although lifeguards at some of the county’s west-facing beaches monitored weather reports somewhat nervously for updates on the predicted seven-foot swells from the Gulf of Alaska storm.

And surfers galore turned out Sunday to ride the swells, Bolsa Chica State Beach lifeguard Scott said. “The surf has been 3 to 5 feet with fairly good shape,” he said.

On the county’s other beaches, which face south and southwest, surf was up and so were spirits.

“It’s looking really gorgeous down here,” said Steve Seim, a marine safety officer at Huntington City Beach, where crowds of what he called “looky-loos” had swarmed onto the city pier to enjoy the clear weather.

Although Southern California has been minimally affected by the storm, Northern California and Oregon have been far harder hit, the National Weather Service said.

A foot of snow was expected by this morning in some parts of the Sierra Nevada.

High surf brought isolated flooding to some areas of Northern California and Oregon.

Winds in some Northern California coastal areas were reported to have reached 60 m.p.h. and caused some isolated power outages.

Wind warnings were issued for the San Gabriel Mountains early today, and for the Owens Valley, which was expecting gusts up to 60 m.p.h., the Weather Service reported.

Highs in Orange County reached 68 degrees Sunday in Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano, with a low of 45 degrees in El Toro.

Daytime temperatures were forecast to hit 65 degrees today.