Ocean water flooded homes and businesses in Newport Beach on Friday as Tropical Storm Rachel barrels toward Southern California.

The National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Watch for Southern California.

This is California’s second-ever tropical storm watch. The Eastern Pacific is much warmer than usual this year because of a historically strong El Niño weather pattern.

The last time a tropical storm made landfall in Southern California was in 1939, AccuWeather reported.

Rachel was a Category 2 hurricane earlier this week and was just downgraded to a tropical storm as it churns in the Eastern Pacific.

The tropical storm is forecast to make landfall in San Diego late Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Tropical Storm Rachel cone / 10/09/2026

Large swells and high tides from the tropical storm caused major flooding in coastal cities in Orange County such as Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Huntington Beach.

Long Beach is also getting slammed with powerful waves and coastal flooding.

Videos posted to social media show oceanfront homes at Newport’s famous break, The Wedge, flooded.

Dramatic video shows the streets turned into rivers as cars slowly drove through the flooded neighborhoods.

Cars were submerged in the ocean water on Newport’s Balboa Peninsula.

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