Increased tides give a potential glimpse of sea-level rise impactsThe United States Coast Guard warned all beachgoers in the Pacific Northwest to be on high alert for sneaker waves while looking at the king tides this weekend.“They’re the highest natural tides of the year, which occur when the moon’s orbit is not uniform around the Earth, so when the moon is the closest to the Earth, that’s when you get it,” said Lori Dengler, geology department professor emeritus for Cal Poly Humboldt. “They come a handful of times a year. They’re easy to predict in advance when you have those situations.”King tides are a non-scientific term for the most dramatic tides of the year. They lead to the highest high tides and the lowest low tides, which can prove to be dangerous for beachgoers.“All beachgoers in the Pacific Northwest are encouraged to exercise heightened caution for sneaker waves during the upcoming king tides this weekend and for the remainder of the winter. The Coast Guard and National Weather Service are urging the public who visit coastal beaches during king tides to be on alert for dangerous surf and potentially fatal sneaker waves.” said the U.S. Coast Guard in a news release on Friday.The king tides affect different beaches differently, with Dengler saying that beaches with steep angles end up being more prone to sneaker waves and water surges.“Our steep beaches, Big Lagoon Beach is notorious, Gold Bluff beach up in Del Norte is another beach where you tend to have these particularly strong sneaker waves,” Dengler said. “Flatter beaches like Clam Beach, it’s not as big as a problem.”The director of the Humboldt Waterkeeper, Jennifer Kalt, says that there’s more to watch out for than just the water itself.“People tend to think of roads as permanent things, but they’re actually a lot of times pretty tenuous,” Kalt said. “There’s a lot of low-lying areas around Humboldt Bay that get flooded when there’s a king tide.”Although the king tides can damage roadways and people, Kalt says it can be a “good time to visualize” what the ocean will look like with a heightened sea level.“The Humboldt Bay area is experiencing twice the relative rate of sea-level rise as the rest of the West Coast because the ground below the bay is sinking at the same rate that the sea level is rising,” Kalt said, “Something like 90% of the tidal wetlands around the bay were filled a century ago and were turned into communities.”Keep reading
