A sea in fury: Drone video captures dramatic king tides at Sunset Cliffs
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- A drone soared over Sunset Cliffs in San Diego on Friday, capturing towering and relentless surf battering the rocky shoreline during this week's king tides event.
Shot by FOX 5/KUSI photojournalist Aaron Eudaley, the footage (above) shows the ocean rampaging in close-to-shore fashion. From the drone's vantage, waves leapt off ridges and crashed against jagged outcrops, sending up plumes of salty sea mist.
King tides — unusually high tides caused by the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun combined with seasonal variations — bring the ocean farther onto land than typical tides. Locally, they serve as a preview of what future sea-level conditions could look like.
Along San Diego's coast, high tides have been documented as much as 7 feet above usual levels during king tide events. This run of drone footage places the viewer almost at water-level heights, making the impact of the sea much more visceral than a shoreline snapshot.
Though this event has now passed, the next major king tides event in San Diego will occur on Dec. 4-5, 2025, and then again in Jan. 2-3, 2026, according to the California King Tides Project.
