Early January Brought Highest Tides Recorded In A Century To Seattle; Coastal Flooding In WA, BC

[hatrack]

?ixlib=rails-2.1.4&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&h=1098&w=1600
A king tide on Puget Sound overtakes Sunset Beach Drive West in University Place, Washington, on the morning of Jan. 7.


Some of the highest tides ever recorded hit Seattle and much of the Washington coast during the first week of January 2022. High tides in Port Townsend, Seattle, and Tacoma on Friday were nearly two feet higher than forecast. Friday morning’s tide in Seattle appears to be the highest in more than a century of record keeping, though the tidal gauge at Colman Dock blinked out for half an hour as Elliott Bay swelled past 14.47 feet, its highest elevation in at least 40 years, at 9 a.m. Tidal gauges in Tacoma, La Push, and Westport also hit all-time highs, though those gauges’ data only go back a quarter century or less.

Surging seas led the National Weather Service to issue coastal flood warnings for the Puget Sound region on three days in January and five in December. On Friday, reports of salt water flooding roads, homes, and businesses came in from British Columbia to south Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Unusually high waves for Washington’s sheltered inland sea pounded waterfront homes on the Shoreline shoreline and in Birch Bay near the Canadian border, among other locations.

Link to tweet

EDIT

King tides are also given about an 8-inch boost these days by global warming. Over the past century, sea level has risen about 8 inches in Seattle, as it has globally.

Oceanographers say king tides offer a glimpse of the future as warming waters and melting polar icecaps continue to push oceans higher. “We know that the sort of event that happened today at high tide at many locations in Puget Sound will become more likely through time,” Miller said. “It is possible that by 2060 to 2070 we could experience tides of the magnitude of king tide events every month due to sea level rise induced by climate change,” according to the King Tides Project, an international nonprofit.

EDIT

https://www.kuow.org/stories/record-setting-tides-flood-washington-coastlines