Marie will become a hurricane Wednesday and could send dangerous surf to San Diego County this weekend

Gary Robbins, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 2, 2026

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SAN DIEGO — The National Hurricane Center says that Tropical Storm Marie will become a hurricane on Wednesday and might produce waves that could cause problems at some San Diego and Orange County beaches over the Labor Day weekend.

“Swells generated by Marie will affect portions of the coast of southwest Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula for the next few days and will likely spread northward to southern California …,” the center said in an advisory. “These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

The biggest surf will hit from Oceanside northward, the National Weather Service said early Wednesday.

Surfline forecaster Kevin Wallis issued a similar forecast.

“My expectation is for south-southeast swell to build starting later Friday, although the bulk of the surf will likely build in over the weekend,” said Kevin Wallis, a forecaster for Surfline in Huntington Beach. “This should be a strong one at the breaks exposed to the SSE direction: mainly Orange County.

“Most of San Diego will miss out on Marie’s extreme angled swell to start the weekend – with a couple of exceptions. However, there will also be a Southern Hemisphere south-southwest swell that fills in at roughly the same time, which will show better across most of San Diego in the 3-6’ range through the weekend.

“Elevated southerly surf likely will continue Labor Day, but right now it’s unclear if it will ease from the weekend or potentially hold or even come up some. It will be dependent on Marie’s exact track over the weekend.”

Forecasters say that air temperatures at the coast will be in the upper 70s to lower 80s over the weekend, drawing lots of beach-goers.

Computer models also indicate that the county could receive some rain from Marie and possibly lightning in the backcountry.

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