Big Waves Pound Northern California Coastline
PACIFICA (CBS-SF) – A pounding surf, churned to life by a series of El Nino storms, battered the Northern California coast line Thursday, triggering a high surf warning from the National Weather Service.
According to forecasters, westerly swells of 15-20 feet would crash into the coast from Point Reyes National Shoreline to Big Sur at least until 2 p.m.
The swells will combined with high tides to also bring the threat of flooding to coastal areas from Sonoma County to the Monterey Bay.
Early morning strollers along San Francisco's Crissy Field stopped to watch waves crash into the seawall near Fort Point.
At the famed Mavericks surf break on the San Mateo County coast, organizers tweeted while the waves would be impressive, they were not large enough to issue a call for the famed big wave riding contest.
However, authorities were warning beachgoers to stay out of the water.
The large swells were the lingering effect of a storm front that rolled through the Bay Area on Wednesday.
That storm was the fourth in a series of fronts lined up in the Pacific and churned to life by El Nino weather conditions.
It dumped 0.75 to 1.50 inches on most cities in the Bay Area Wednesday with several inches falling in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
A fifth storm front was forecasted to arrive in the Bay Area on Friday night through Saturday morning. Up to about 0.50 inches of rain was expected in the wettest locations.
On Monday a sixth front was expected to arrive, bringing with it an inch of rain.
On Wednesday, the final storm in the set was forecasted to bring with it heavy rains of an inch or more and strong winds.