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BY Kristin Toussaint

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Throughout the last week of October, intense tides caused record-high water levels across the Southern California coast. Ocean water flooded the Redondo Beach boardwalk. Tide levels in San Diego topped 8 feet above baseline. Water level readings were among the highest in more than a century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This year’s record-hot Super El Niño helped push those water levels to the extreme. But El Niño also combined with a natural phenomenon called king tides. More king tides later this year are expected to bring even more intense, damaging flooding to the coast.

And working underneath both of these events is climate change, which has caused sea level rise and intense marine heat waves.

All these factors are compounding and overlapping, experts say, in a way that will likely make this a dangerous winter for those along the coast.…