SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – New studies from Scripps Institution of Oceanography have some encouraging findings when it comes to San Diego County’s beaches and others.
One of those is the 2025 San Diego County Beach Report by Scripps.
“The beach report is something we put out every year for San Diego,” William O’Reilly of Scripps Institution of Oceanography said. “We reported that our beaches have widened since last year, which we were expecting after the El Niño.”
The report surveyed nine of our beaches in San Diego County, ranging all the way from Oceanside to the Border.
“We have a cycle of beach loss during El Niño winters and then a slow progressive recovery over the next few 3-4 years before the next El Niño,” O’Reilly said. “So we're in that phase, and the beaches are a little wider than they were last year. So that's good.”
The widening of a beach basically means there’s more sand on the shoreline and vice versa if it’s narrowing.
The beaches are measured using satellite and laser imaging technology.
“It measures the beach in great detail down to the water line. So we have this amazing data set, showing how our beaches evolve from week to week and from year to year,” O’Reilly said.
Scripps’ other recent study shows the state’s average beach width is staying stable. Some beaches have been getting narrower over the last 20 to 25 years, according to O’Reilly.
“But what we didn't realize is they're actually the other half of the beaches are actually getting wider than they were before because the sand has moved up and down the coast rather than leaving the system altogether,” O’Reilly said.
While it’s great that local beaches widened from last year to this year as they recover from El Niño, it doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet when it comes to shoreline and coastlines.
Researchers said there are still concerns about erosion and rising sea levels regarding the long-term impacts on beaches.
“For the moment, that the width of the beach seems to be fairly stable, but over time, we expect to see much more vulnerability in terms of the beaches along the coast here,” Mark Merrifield, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said.
