Hurricane Rachel may be hundreds of miles offshore, but Southern California is already taking a beating from the incoming storm.
Dramatic footage from Long Beach shows waves slamming into seawalls and exploding several stories into the air, while farther south in Laguna Beach, ocean water pushed into downtown streets as high tides, hurricane swell, and already elevated sea levels combined along the Orange County coast.
Check it out below.
Rachel has since weakened into a tropical storm. As of Thursday evening, the National Hurricane Center placed the system roughly 995 miles west of southern Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. Forecasters expect it to make a sharp northeast turn toward Baja and Southern California.
The NHC warns that Rachel-generated swells will continue building through the weekend and are likely to cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
Long Beach has been among the most visually dramatic locations. Multiple outlets reported and showed footage of waves crashing into the shoreline and seawall Thursday, with water splashing several stories high. City crews distributed thousands of sandbags and reinforced beach berms as residents prepared for additional flooding.
The backwash, smashing the reinforcements from the waves, makes a towering cascade well over 20 feet. However, the official forecasts are a little different.
Official surf numbers are less spectacular than the footage suggests. The National Weather Service forecasts 3-to-5-foot surf for Los Angeles County beaches, with a high rip-current risk. In Orange and San Diego counties, surf has been running 3 to 5 feet with sets to 7 feet, while tides peak around 6.5 to 7 feet.
But the waves are riding on an unusually high ocean.
An El Niño-fueled Kelvin wave has reached California, capable of raising background sea levels by roughly 6 to 12 inches. Ocean temperatures off Southern California are also running about 7 to 8 degrees above average.
Related: Hurricane Rachel Takes Alarming Turn Toward Southern California (Video)
That elevated baseline is what makes Rachel especially concerning.
The NWS Coastal Flood Advisory remains in effect through Tuesday, warning of moderate flooding and even isolated significant flooding, especially Sunday.
Further south from Long Beach, waves from Rachel flooded downtown. See footage, linked here, and below.
Rachel isn’t even here yet.
But its ocean energy certainly is.
Related: Watch: 25-Foot Waves from Hurricane Rachel Slam Cabo’s Iconic Surf Spots
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