Many people – well, at least those living near a coast – have heard of king tides.
King tides, which actually isn’t an official NOAA term, are the bigger siblings of spring tides.
To clear this up a bit.
Every month there are spring tides and neap tides. The former occur at the full moon and new moon, and produce the largest tidal variation (between high tide and low tide) The neap tides, which produce the lowest tidal variation, occur during the periods between those two moon phases.
At least here in the Pacific Northwest, king tides occur in November through January – when the Earth is at perihelion, its closest point to the sun at the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice.
Think of king tides as spring tides on steroids.
The high tides can be at least two feet (or more) higher than typical spring tides – meaning flooding of areas that typically are dry at high tide.
Around Gig Harbor, our local downtown parks get flooded – with the highest king tides topping the seawall. It’s sort of weird to see the ramp ‘up’ to the floats on the public dock.
One other thing about this year’s king tides – they blew out my planned fishing last month and this month.
I had planned to get out in November and then the king tides arrived. At their highest, there were no beaches to walk.
Fine, one might think – then go out when the tide is down.
Unfortunately, the periods of the highest tides have been through the daylight hours. That’s made wading impossible for the last month and a half.
And then there have been the bomb cyclones.
A bomb cyclone means a storm with a rapid and significant drop in atmospheric pressure.
We’ve had a few in the last two months.
The first was November 19th .
While we had only a brief power outage and some downed branches, other areas around Puget Sound were hammered with falling trees (tragically, several people were killed) and downed power lines. Some neighborhoods were without power for more than one week.
Since then, we’ve had a few others – none as severe.
But as other areas of the country have experienced, old assumptions about seasonal weather are longer reliable.
When I first moved to the Northwest 43 years ago – wow, I tend to forget it’s been that long – the locals said there were a few reliable weather patterns.
The first was that summer wouldn’t officially begin until July 7th – then the most beautiful summer would occur through late October – with consistently sunny weather and temperatures never above 75 F. The other was that when the snow started in the Cascades it would dump many feet deep, even at Snoqualmie Pass (3,000 feet).
Both were things I saw that first decade. The summers were unbelievable – pleasant temperatures and bright sun. It truly was a paradise.
I learned to ski at Snoqualmie Pass where the snow was at least ten feet deep, and where the compacted snow from the plows that cleared the roads and parking areas was at least double that.
A decade later and the summers were getting warmer. I recall the first summer with temperatures in the 90s – in an area with little air conditioning – at the time – even going to work was welcome to get out of the heat. In 2021, the temperature reached 108 on June 28th.
Winter snows can be deep at higher elevations while Snoqualmie Pass often sees little snow (currently it’s at 43% of historical levels).
Even when the snow is deep – particularly in early winter – there is often a warm weather pattern – the so-called “Pineapple Express” that brings a river of warm wet tropical air. Snow melts, and rivers rise and flood.
Some people embrace the notion that it’s due to climate change – and maybe it is.
Unfortunately it’s a subject that becomes one of partisan ideology rather than science.
So here’s a little science provided by the geologic record (much of it based on deep ocean core samples).
In the last 2.6 million years there have been repeated cycles (at least 17) of glacial advance as well as periods between glacial advance (inter-glacials). Each cycle lasts about 40,000 – 100,000 years.
The last glacial period ended around 25,000-18,000 years ago (there is obvious variation in the timing of all these periods). In any case, based on previous inter-glacials, there is another 200 feet of sea-level rise possible. Previous inter-glacials have been estimated as lasting 10,000 – 30,000 years.
Beyond that, the arguments can begin whether humans are contributing to it, or can do anything to stop the current inter-glacial period – though even with the variability in timing, the latter seems unlikely, with the current inter-glacial period probably extending on for thousands of years.
As a species, our best efforts should be in reducing human impacts on all other species with whom we share the planet. And that includes finding ways not to burn them and us up in the fires of nuclear war.
That should be a goal for everyone in 2025.
