An evaluation of high-resolution ocean reanalyses in the California current system

•Comparing high-resolution ocean reanalyses to observations along U.S. west coast.•Reanalyses compare well to temperature and sea surface height observations.•Reanalyses have larger errors in surface and subsurface salinity.•Finer grids in GLORYS/CCSRA improves nearshore fidelity, ORAS5 comparable offshore.•Reanalyses provide realistic representation of the undersampled California Current.