El Nino 2026/27: SoCal Sea Surface Temperatures

Week ending Aug 30, 2026 · David Levin

August stayed hot on the daily averages — the chart above uses NOAA's day-mean water temps, and the region closed the month around 76°F, still roughly three to four degrees above what late August usually looks like. Mid-month cooled off a touch, then the last week climbed again. Trunks weather, full stop.

The bigger story is in the peak readings — the single hottest observation each day, not the average. Capistrano Nearshore cleared 80°F for the first time in its short record on Aug 29 (80.4°F just before 2 PM). Green Beach Offshore hit 80.2°F on Aug 28. Red Beach Nearshore peaked at 79.7°F the same day — an all-time high for that buoy since it came online in late 2022.

Yes, Capistrano, Red Beach, and Green Beach are newer stations with only a few years of history. But context matters: across the full SoCal buoy network, a single observation above 80°F is genuinely rare. Oceanside OS has done it once (80.2°F in 2018). Torrey Pines Outer hit 81.7°F back in 2006. SCRIPPS touched 82°F in 2022. Point Loma South has never cleared 80. In the entire loaded record there are only a handful of station-days where any buoy peaked at 80 or above — mostly the 2018 heat wave cluster at SCRIPPS and Oceanside. This late-August run is the first time the newer nearshore buoys have joined that club.

On daily averages, Capistrano still led the network this year at 78.9°F on Aug 29 — the hottest day-mean of 2026 so far — even though intraday peaks ran a degree or two warmer. If you've been waiting for the water to feel like a pool, it's here. We'll keep updating the chart and the automated stats below as NOAA posts new days.