King Tide: The Worst May Be Yet To Come

What a beautiful start to the week: sunny, warm and only a light breeze. A PERFECT day to sit outside for lunch. If were doing lunch al fresco at the Chart House you needed your galoshes. Check out this picture shot by Francisco Urena:

Flood43
Francisco Urena

You might be wondering what caused this flooding. A water main break? An unpredictable downpour? No. It was high tide.

This is what’s known as a king tide. The moon is currently making it’s closest approach to the earth — known as perigee. We were just at perigee, but the closest perigee will happen on November 14th. The earth and moon will be 221,524 miles apart. Gravity increases when the earth and moon are closest together, which helps increase the tide. In Boston Harbor the flood level is 12.5’ — that’s where high tide ended up today and could occur again tomorrow. Tides will NOT be as high on Wednesday.

Remember when I said the earth would be even closer to the moon in November? That will translate into another round possible flooding. We could see flooding at times of high tide between the 12th and 17th!

Thankfully this round of high tides coincided with sunshine and high pressure. Yes, we need the rain, but hopefully we remain storm free during the 3rd week of November. A strong Nor’easter coupled with this king tide is a big worry.

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