La Jolla conditions
La Jolla visibility today: the wind and the tide want different hours
Tuesday is a B again. The morning has the flat water. The evening has the tide.
La Jolla visibility today, Tuesday, Oct. 20: the Dive Pro beta model says B. That’s 15 to 24 feet, medium confidence, the same line as Monday. The model gives the B about a three-in-four chance. A C is about one in five. A decent day, not a postcard.
The swell backed off a touch. The main swell is about 3 feet at roughly 12 and a half seconds out of the south-southwest. Monday it was closer to 3.4 at 13. Period is the gap between waves, and a longer gap means more push reaching the bottom, which is how sand ends up in your mask in the shallows. There’s a smaller side swell too, under 2 feet from the west-southwest. The model’s surf number tops out near 4 feet. Smaller than Monday. Still not nothing on a sandy entry.
Here’s the actual story today. The wind and the tide want different hours. The model has the wind at about 3 to 6 miles an hour through 10 a.m., then climbing to around 10 by 2 p.m., with gusts near 15. That’s the flat-surface window, and it’s the morning.
The tide runs the other way. NOAA’s La Jolla station has a 4.1-foot high at 7:05 a.m., a 2.6-foot low at 12:20 p.m., then a 4.4-foot high at 5:52 p.m. The model’s own write-up likes the rising tide into that evening high, because incoming water can carry cleaner offshore water toward the beach. By then the wind is supposed to be fading back to around 7 at 5 p.m. and 5 by 6. So the morning gets calm water on a falling tide. The late afternoon gets the push of the tide but less light, and this time of year the light goes early.
No rain in the model’s seven-day count. Runoff is not the problem right now. Bacteria still is at one spot. As of this morning’s County beach list, La Jolla Cove is still under an advisory, on since Sept. 29. Children’s Pool has its usual long-running one. The La Jolla Shores stations and WindanSea were not on the list.
Water is warm. NOAA’s La Jolla station read 72.7 degrees at 7 a.m. That’s a short-sleeve-under-the-wetsuit kind of October.
The Scripps Pier camera’s latest frame is from Monday around 5 p.m. It shoots around midday and late afternoon, so a morning picture from yesterday is normal. The automatic camera grade didn’t post, so today’s number is the model on its own.
The play: get in early if you want the glassy surface and expect the shallows to be the murkier end of the range. If you can only go after work, the tide is on your side, the clock is not. Wednesday’s line is another B, 15 to 24. Odds, not a lock.
The usual reminder. 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 20 October 2026 for forecast date 20 October 2026. NOAA Tides and Currents, La Jolla station 9410230, tide predictions and water temperature for 20 October 2026. San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality beach and bay water quality, checked 20 October 2026. Scripps Pier camera.