King Tides and Storm Surge along the Straits
Yesterday the National Weather Service put out an alert for coastal flooding caused by high tides and storm surge. I went down the Olympic Discovery Trail to take a look. Waves were crashing on the rip-rap and spraying onto the trail. The tide had pushed up into the creeks. At 4 Seasons Ranch water was piling up in low spots. King Tides are exceptionally high tides, usually occurring around the full moon. Dec 15-17 will be this month's King tides dates, with high tides of 9 feet at Dungeness. Global warming can make King tides higher in several ways: - sea level rise when warmer oceans expand - more sea level rise from melting continental glaciers - higher storm surge from more intense storms Here's a website with a calendar of King Tides: https://wsg.washington.edu/.../hazar.../king-tides/calendar/ More information on King Tides at: https://wsg.washington.edu/community-outreach/hazard-resilience-and-climate-adaptation/king-tides/program/ and https://www.epa.gov/cre/climate-cha...