The King Tides Project

January 30, 2020

The California Coastal Commission defines a king tide as “an especially high tide event, when there is alignment of the gravitational pull between sun and moon”. When these high tides occur alongside storms and flooding, the results can be extreme. 

The California King Tides Project is an initiative of the California Coastal Commission to document these extreme high tide events to help us preprare for and envision the effects of climate change. On January 10, Mendocino Land Trust staff visited several of our vulnerable coastal properties to photograph that morning’s king tide. Fortunately, though the tide was high, the ocean was calm that day and the waves did not come as far up the beach or do the kind of damage they did last winter (remember this video we posted in December 2018?).

The next king tide will be February 8 & 9. We invite you to join us in documenting this occurance by taking photographs at the peak of the high tide (see tide times and heights for Fort Bragg, CA below, or visit the NOAA website to find the best time for your area) and submitting your photos to the California King Tides Project.

Feb. 8, 2020
high time / height: 9:40 AM / 7.38 ft.
low time / height: 4:53 PM / -1.02 ft.
Feb. 9, 2020
high time / height: 10:30 AM / 7.43 ft.
low time / height: 5:34 PM / -1.02 ft.