West Coast King Tides Causing Floods And Aggravation This Weekend

King Tide flooding in Marin County
Friday. The flooding was expected to
be as bad or worse today.

 King Tides are swamping parts of the West Coast this weekend. 

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.  

 

Nice Vermont, King Tides, Atmospheric RIver And Oddly Lingering Wanda

Unusually sunny weather for November this morning light up
the deep yellows of large poplar trees on my St. Albans property.
Leaves are still on awfully late in the season. My home office
window looks out on these trees, so right now the office
is glowing an angelic golden color from the reflected light. 

In a post yesterday, I talked about how gloomy November usually is in Vermont. 

But, we do have a treat for you.  For the second year in a row, we've got a stretch of unusually bright weather to talk about. 

There's been some sun for the past couple days, and it looks like we'll have partly to mostly sunny skies daily through Thursday, though Wednesday could be a bit more on the cloudy side.  

Temperatures will also be a little warmer than normal, sneaking up into the 50s most days.

This won't compare to the string of sunny days with near record temperatures in the low 70s that lasted nearly a week last November. But still, it you're like me and way behind in getting the last of your fall chores done, we're catching a break.

After all, in some Novembers, like in 2019, winter hits at the beginning of the month, and you're screwed with winter prep in those cases.

Since the weather is going to be quiet here in Vermont for awhile, we can talk about some other noteworthy things going on out there.

ATMOSPHERIC RIVER

Northern California is getting more good news in that another atmospheric river is set to hit that area early next week.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow channels of deep moisture in the atmosphere, like a river in the sky. It's how California gets much of its winter seasonal rainfalls.

Since California is in a drought, an atmospheric river is mostly a good thing. They had a pretty strong one last month, which was so intense it led to a lot of flash flooding and debris flows. This one is going to be weaker than the last, but will still bring beneficial rains to the northern half of the state.

Southern California, unfortunately, will mostly miss out. 

This unsettled California weather will eventually consolidate into what will probably be a pretty good sized storm in the center the nation late next week. That storm could give us a pretty good slug of rain next weekend. 

KING TIDE AND STORM

A nasty storm is meandering off the coast of Georgia and Florida which is causing a big fetch of east and northeast winds off the Atlantic Ocean into the coastline.  That's driving a lot of ocean water onto the shore, too.

The timing couldn't be worse. Tides are higher when there's a new or full moon.  At certain times of the year, the new or full moon can produce even slightly higher tides than at other times of year. That's called a King Tide and it's going on now.

Plus, with climate change, ocean levels have risen, so it's easier to get nuisance flooding during King Tides even when there's sunny, calm weather.

The combination of this year's King Tide and that storm is pushing coastal flooding in northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to near record highs. They're expecting that quite a few homes and businesses could get flooded this morning.

Even though this storm won't go up the coast like the last nor'easter in October, the King Tide will cause minor flooding on the Atlantic shores all the way up to Maine. 

WANDA LIVES! 

Meanwhile, the nor'easter that hit coastal New England on October 23 and 24 eventually headed east and turned into Tropical Storm Wanda. Believe it or not, Tropical Storm Wanda is still wandering out there in the central Atlantic.   Wanda is expected to turn back into a non-tropical storm over the weekend and race toward Ireland early next week.