High Tides, Winds and Cold Promise Unusual Weekend

Mother Nature is pulling out all the stops this weekend in Orange County.

In addition to bone-chilling cold predicted by late Saturday, the county also will be buffeted by some of the highest tides of the year.

The annual alignment of sun and moon will bring tides averaging 7.3 feet, starting Friday and culminating Monday. Tides could reach as high as 10 feet in some areas, weather forecasters said.

The cold weather coming in will add to that spectacle, forecasters said. The Arctic storm could bring winds up to 25 m.p.h. by Sunday, and that could make for monster waves on Orange County beaches, according to forecasters.

“The winds will be adding a couple of feet to already high tides, and that could make for waves 9 or 10 feet tall,” said Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

“December tends to have the highest tides of the year (for the Orange County area) because of the alignment of sun and moon. The tides will start going up Friday and will peak on Monday, then start going down again.”

Burback noted that Orange County also had tides averaging 7.3 feet on Dec. 2. The tide forecast for Monday--New Year’s Eve--thus matches the Dec. 2 event as the twin highest tides of the year in the county, he said.

Monday night also will feature the second full moon in the same month, Burback said. “When you have two full moons in the same month, the second one is called a blue moon,” he said. “I’m not sure why it’s called that.”

Patty Schooley, parks district supervisor for the county’s Environmental Management Agency, said, “The weather forecast provided to us calls for short periods of waves 6 to 8 feet high during the high-tide period.”

Schooley said that short periods of waves that high pose no serious threat, but she added that the Environmental Management Agency nonetheless has alerted its rangers about possible problems from high surf over the weekend.

“We’re not anticipating problems, but we’ll be prepared,” said Schooley.

Sgt. Tom Wallstrom of the Harbor Patrol office at Newport Beach said that he does not expect waves high enough to cause serious problems this weekend.

“The (annual) high tides are nothing by themselves,” he said. “It’s only when they come with a strong wind that they can cause some problems.”

According to WeatherData, a mass of cold Arctic air moving south toward Southern California will drop temperatures into the 20s by Monday. Burback predicted that winds accompanying the cold front will be out of the northwest and will range from 15 to 25 m.p.h. “You’ll see some pretty good waves coming on shore,” he said.

WHEN HIGH TIDES WILL HIT

Day Time Height Today 5:37 a.m. 6.3 feet Saturday 7:13 a.m. 6.8 feet Sunday 7:13 a.m. 7.1 feet Monday 8:02 a.m. 7.3 feet Tuesday 8:50 a.m. 7.2 feet Wednesday 9:37 a.m. 6.8 feet

Source: Source: WeatherData, Inc.