photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
High surf collides with the Sonoma Coast 12/27/23 

Towering waves as high as 33-feet are expected to continue pummeling the California coast into Friday, along with high winds, as a major storm approaches. 

Even though the strongest band of moisture, expected to bring as much as three-and-a-half inches of rain to North Bay mountains, won't arrive until late Friday afternoon; surging waves, associated with the system have already forced mandatory evacuations at Stinson Beach and in Santa Cruz County.

Similar conditions are expected all along the coast.

"We are looking at breaking waves at the coast, anywhere from twenty-eight to thirty-three feet. Conditions at the coast are very deadly, very dangerous, so we are encouraging people to stay away from the water, give it a healthy distance and just, don't go near it if you can," said Alexis Clouser, a National Weather Service Meteorologist.

The danger is real.

"We have seen some reports today of waves crashing up along roads that are immediate to the coast, we've had a couple of reports of roadway flooding as a result of waves coming up over the roads," Clouser said.

There's enough power in those big waves to alter the landscape.

"The larger waves do have that ability to wash away sand and erode the beaches," Clouser said.

Although wave heights will begin subsiding and a warning expires Friday, about 12 hours before the strongest parts of the storm arrive, rough seas will stick around.

"Just because the warning ends, does not mean that wave conditions are safe, we still are expecting to see larger heights continuing into the weekend," Clouser said.

While witnessing the spectacle of nature's fury can be enticing, Clouser urges people to pass, and if they won't, to use extreme caution.

"Give it a healthly distance. And if you see somebody in the water or for example, a dog gets loose and into the water, do not go into the water by any means, call 911 and wait for a professional rescue," Clouser said.