High Tide on Clay Street, February 12, 2017

I’ve never put together until recently that the term “King Tide” has to do with Climate Change.  I knew, of course, that we didn’t have anything called “king tides” when I was a kid — just high, low, ebb, slack and a few other descriptors.  And every once in a while there’d be a ginormously high tide.   Folks would just say, “Wow!  That’s a really high tide!” and the wags would get out their rowboats and or canoes and paddle down Fourth Street (as Territory Road was then called.)

But when I heard on KMUN that this was to be another King Tide Weekend — the second in less than a month — I decided to find out a little more.  As in why have we only heard of king tides recently?  It all made sense when I learned that the term was originated in 2009 when Australia experienced their highest seasonal tides in almost 20 years.  Since then the concept of “king tides” has become a common colloquial term to describe higher than normal high tides.   So there you have it.

The Meadow at High Tide, February 10, 2017

According to a recent news report from Depoe Bay, just down the coast apiece, “Tourists, nature lovers and amateur scientists are whipping out their cameras to document the effects of extreme high tides on shorelines from the United States to New Zealand, and by doing so are helping better predict what rising sea levels will mean for coastal communities around the world.”  The article goes on to say that what we see this weekend will approximate what the shoreline will look like (as a result of climate change) in 2050 with the tide about a foot to a foot and half (30 to 46 centimeters) above “normal” (to us) water levels.

Wow!  Finally there will be a crystal ball (of sorts) right here in Oysterville and we will be able to look thirty years into the future!  And right out our east windows, too!  High tide times during daylight hours will be:  the 13th, 11:44 a.m. 12.6 feet; the 14th, 12:29 p.m. 12.8 feet; 1:14 p.m. 12. 7 feet.  (Actually these times are for Nahcotta four miles to our South, so they may be off by a few minutes.)  Of course, should there be an unexpected storm with high winds pushing that water shoreward, the high tides could be even higher…  Don’t forget to wear your rubber boots!