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| King Tide flooding in Marin County Friday. The flooding was expected to be as bad or worse today. |
Coastal flood warning and advisories and beach hazard statements are in effect up today all the way up and down the West Coast.
King Tides are related to this weekend's full moon, known as the Wolf Moon, after the howl of wolves you might hear on cold January nights.
The Wolf Moon is also a super moon, meaning the full moon is closer to the Earth than at other times of the year. The full moon and the fact that Earth's orbit is now closest to the sun are making high tides even higher this weekend. The sun, Earth and moon are all aligned, adding to the extra water on the shorelines at height tide.
On the West Coast, an offshore storm is driving wind and water toward the beaches, marinas and bays in California, Oregon and Washington, which adds a storm surge to the king tides. This double whammy is what has so many people concerned.
The National Weather Service office in the Bay Area issued a coastal flood warning for today with the following alert:
"Numerous roads will be closed. Low lying property including homes, businesses and some critical infrastructure will be inundated. Some shoreline erosion will occur."
At the San Francisco tidal gauge, forecasters said this morning's high tide would be 2.5 above normal, the highest since 1998
The tide fell just short of that on Friday in San Francisco, peaking at 2.2 feet above normal. That flooded streets and some businesses in the Bay Area.
The Corte Madera area of Marin County was especially hard hit by Friday's King Tide. And presumably today's. High tide was approaching as I wrote this.
Employees of a fitness center surrounded by water were seen trying to bail out the business with buckets. Cars in the fitness center's parking lot were flooded and stranded. Television station KTVU showed a neighborhood flooded by the king tide Friday.
The offshore storm is creating other headaches in the Bay Area, including gusty winds and heavy downpours which could cause some non-tidal flooding. The high tides are blocking rain swollen rivers where they empty into the Pacific, adding to the flooding hazards.
In the Los Angeles area, a large sand burn was bulldozed into place in hopes of preventing flooding in parking areas, the pier, homes and buildings nearby, as KTLA reports.
As KPBS in San Diego points out, this weekend's king tides are giving Californians a glimpse into the future. "What the California Coastal Commission is telling us is that the King Tide is approximately what an average high tie will be by 2050," said Karin Kirk, executive director of Friends of Rose Creek.
The East Coast is not being as seriously affected by this weekend's King Tides. Weather patterns are keeping the worst of the tides at bay.
But this episode is a warning to all coastal areas. The water will keep coming up in the years and decades to come as climate change continues to raise sea levels.
In a few decades, the high water on the West Coast will seem quaint. Maybe it's time for people living right on the water to start pulling back, hard as that is to do.
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