LIVE CAMERA NETWORK
California Flood Cams — King Tides, Live
Record king tides are flooding the coast from San Francisco to San Diego, advisories through Thursday. Watch the water live — free, no signup.
California's coast is flooding on schedule this week. Record-high king tides are pushing seawater over seawalls, into harbors and across low coastal roads from San Francisco to San Diego, and National Weather Service coastal flood advisories for the California coast run through Thursday, October 29. This page gathers the live public cameras along that coast — 342 around the San Francisco Bay Area, 207 along the Los Angeles coast, 198 around San Diego, plus Orange County and the also-flooding Southeast — so you can see the water where you live, or where you're headed. Every feed is free to watch, no signup.
A king tide is not a storm. It is the predictable peak of the tide cycle — the sun and moon aligned, the moon near perigee — stacking the ocean a foot or more above an ordinary high tide. On a calm, sunny morning, that is enough to flood the lowest streets of Newport Beach, swamp bayshore paths in San Francisco, and put water over the curb in San Diego. Forecasters use king tides as a preview of ordinary future high tides, which is why a flood with no rain makes news.
This week the tides land on a coastline already soaked: California's first major storm of the season arrived October 21–22, with flood watches over the Malibu and Santa Monica Mountains burn scars and downtown Los Angeles on track for its wettest October since 2009. Saturated ground and swollen storm drains give the tide water fewer places to go.
The same tide cycle is flooding the Atlantic side the same week — major-to-moderate coastal flooding from Miami to Charleston — so both of those cities have walls below the California sections. One discipline applies everywhere on this page: the cameras are for situational awareness. Official advisories and warnings come from the National Weather Service, and if water is over a road, the only right move is to turn around — never drive through it.
Official warnings come first
Coastal flood advisories, warnings and road closures are issued by the National Weather Service and local emergency agencies — not by any camera site. Check the current advisory for your exact location before you travel, and never drive through flooded roads: a foot of moving water can float a car.
San Francisco Bay Area
342 cameras within 30 km of downtown San Francisco — the bayshore, the Embarcadero waterfront, Sausalito and the Marin shore, where king tides spill onto bayfront paths and low roads first.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for San Francisco Bay Area.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
Los Angeles coast
207 cameras within 30 km of Santa Monica — Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice and the South Bay beach cities. Los Angeles recorded record-high king-tide water levels this week, above 2.50 ft in LA, San Diego and Santa Monica.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for the Los Angeles coast.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
Orange County
260 cameras within 25 km of Newport Beach — the Balboa Peninsula, Newport and Huntington harbors and the beach cities, where tide water backs up through storm drains into the lowest streets.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for Orange County.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
San Diego
198 cameras within 30 km of downtown San Diego — Mission Bay, Pacific Beach, Coronado and the harbor, among the first places in the county to take tide water over the curb.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for San Diego.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
Miami & South Florida
476 cameras within 30 km of downtown Miami. The same tide cycle flooding California is producing major-to-moderate coastal flooding on the Southeast coast this week — Miami's "sunny-day flooding" is the king tide's signature on the Atlantic side.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for Miami & South Florida.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
Charleston
67 cameras within 30 km of downtown Charleston — the Battery and the peninsula, a city so tide-prone that downtown streets flood on the highest tides of an ordinary month.
Loading live cameras…Fetching the live index for Charleston.
Every card is the camera's real live feed: snapshot cards refresh about every 15 seconds, stream cards play live in the grid (a few at a time, the same budget the map tiles use) and in full when you open a camera. Feeds are provided by their operators and public sources; a camera whose stream has gone off air shows as unavailable rather than playing a recording.
Understanding this flood
What a king tide is
The highest tides of the year, when the sun and moon's pulls align and the moon is closest to Earth. They arrive on a schedule published months in advance — which is why a flood can be headline news on a day without a cloud in the sky.
Where it floods first
Harbor edges, bayshore paths, beach parking lots and the lowest streets behind them — the places built at the old high-tide line. Watch the harbor and bayshore cameras around each day's high tide for the peak.
Why this week is worse
The season's first big storm soaked the coast on October 21–22, days before the tide peak. Saturated ground, full storm drains and runoff from burn-scar hillsides mean the tide water stacks on top of water already there.
What happens next
King tides return in cycles through the winter, and the El Niño pattern setting up for this season is expected to bring California a stormy few months. This page stays live as the coast's standing flood-watch wall.
How to check your coast
- 1Find your city in the walls above — each is every public camera within the stated distance of the city centre, nearest first.
- 2Check the harbor, bayshore and beach cameras around high tide; tide flooding peaks within an hour or so either side of it.
- 3Use the road and traffic cameras just inland to judge whether your route is passable — then confirm with the National Weather Service advisory for your location.
- 4Recheck at the next high tide rather than assuming it is over: this event floods on a twice-daily cycle through Thursday.
California flood cams — FAQ
What is a king tide?+
How long do the California flood advisories last?+
Where do official flood warnings come from?+
Can these cameras show me flooded streets?+
Why are Miami and Charleston on a California flood page?+
Are these cameras free to watch?+
More live WorldEye
The globe is free. The locked layers aren’t.
Everything on this page is free with no signup. Paid plans unlock the intelligence toolkit, intel layers, timelapse, camera alerts and the recording studio — and every plan starts with a free trial. We email you before your trial's first charge.
3 DAYS FREE
Weekly
$7.99/week
about $1.14 a day
3 days free, then billed weekly · cancel anytime
10 DAYS FREE
Monthly
$13.99/month
about $0.47 a day
10 days free, then billed monthly · cancel anytime
10 DAYS FREE
VIP Pro
$74.99/year
about $0.21 a day
10 days free, then billed annually · cancel anytime
Covered by a 7-day money-back guarantee on your first charge — email us within 7 days of the charge for a full refund, no questions asked.