La Jolla visibility today: call it 10 to 14 feet

La Jolla visibility today, Sunday, Oct. 18: the Dive Pro beta model says C. That’s 10 to 14 feet, medium confidence. Saturday’s line was a B, 15 to 24. So we lost a letter overnight. A drop, not a disaster.

Quick refresher on what the grade is. It’s the model’s guess at how far you’ll see underwater, built from swell, wind, rain and tide. Today the swell is doing most of the talking. The main swell is about 3.3 feet at 13 seconds out of the south-southwest. Long period means every wave carries real push. That push reaches the bottom in the shallows, kicks up sand, and leaves it hanging there. The model’s surf number tops out around 3.7 feet. Not big. Big enough to stir up a sandy entry.

The wind is the good news. The model has it light, around 6 miles an hour on average, gusts near 13, out of the northwest. Saturday’s line had gusts to 27. The surface should feel a lot friendlier than yesterday, even if the water under it isn’t clearer.

The rain story is fading. The Oct. 11 storm put a County rain advisory on every La Jolla station, and the County lifted it Oct. 15. The rain the model counts over the past week went from about 2.1 inches on Saturday’s line to about 1 inch today. Runoff is aging out. That’s the direction you want.

Clean water and clear water are different questions, though. As of the County’s list at 7 a.m. today, La Jolla Cove is still under a water-quality advisory, on since Sept. 29. An advisory means a County water test came back with bacteria above the state standard. Children’s Pool has its usual long-running advisory. The La Jolla Shores stations were not on the list. If you’re picking between the Cove and the Shores, that helps.

The morning tide barely moves. NOAA’s La Jolla station has a 3.6-foot high at 7:16 a.m. and a 3.5-foot low at 9:40. That’s a flat line. Then it climbs to 4.1 feet at 3:13 p.m. The same station read 72.5 degrees in the water at 7 a.m. The model has the sea surface running about 5 degrees warmer than normal for the date. Still a warm October.

The Scripps Pier camera’s last frame came in Saturday evening, and the automatic camera grade didn’t post. So today’s number is the model on its own.

The play: the model’s best window is early to late morning, before the wind builds. Get in early, go a little deeper, and expect the shallows to be the worst of it. Monday’s line goes back to a B, 15 to 24. Odds, not a lock.

One more time, because it matters. This model is beta. It hasn’t been checked against a full season of real dive reports yet. Treat it like a buddy’s read in the parking lot, not a promise. Daily numbers live on the La Jolla forecast.

Dive spots: La Jolla visibility, Monterey Breakwater, McAbee Beach, Lovers Point, Point Lobos, Monastery Beach, Catalina Wrigley, and Anacapa.

Sources: Dive Pro La Jolla beta forecast, published 17 October 2026. NOAA Tides and Currents, La Jolla station 9410230, tide predictions and water temperature for 18 October 2026. San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality beach and bay water quality, checked 18 October 2026. Scripps Pier camera.