The ocean, the beaches and the bluffs: the coastline that defines the city, and what threatens it.
The National Weather Service forecast issued Thursday afternoon calls for cooler weather and periods of showers from overnight through the middle of next week, with wetting rain likely west of the mountains through Saturday and gusty winds in the mountains and deserts.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Station Ventura pulled a man from a grounded, flooding sailboat near Coronado early Sunday, after a Station San Diego boat crew found the water too shallow and rough to reach him.
Only the second tropical storm watch ever issued for San Diego County, after Hurricane Hilary in 2023, brings a forecast of 6-to-9-foot surf, 7-foot-plus tides, flooding rain, and gusts to 60 mph, mostly on Sunday.
SANDAG has spent two decades and five stabilization projects keeping the Del Mar bluffs under the tracks. Phase 5, at roughly $88 million, buys time for the permanent fix: moving the rails off the bluffs entirely.
The Tijuana River has fouled South County beaches for decades. In 2026, the federal fix, collectors, interceptors, pump stations, finally started moving.
