Shoot Some King Tide Photos

Crescent Beach on Orcas after Public Works crews cleared the road of large wood, December 2014 – Janet Alderton photo

Here’s a note from FRIENDS of the San Juans on a fun way you can help document King Tides next week…

Do you have a digital camera or camera phone? If so, help local and regional researchers capture this year’s king tide!

Join FRIENDS and king tide volunteers from your community and across the globe to document the year’s highest tides by taking photos of your favorite local shorelines. This year’s highest tides are predicted for around 8:00 am the mornings of December 27th and 28th, 2015. Images with some recognizable feature such as a road, unique rock or tree, or building are the most effective.

A “king tide” is the highest predicted high tide of the year at a given coastal location. These highest tides occur naturally when the sun and the moon align, increasing the gravitational pull on the Earth’s oceans. This only happens one to two times per year.

Tide levels are influenced by local weather, with low barometric pressure and high winds resulting in even higher water levels. This happened last year, when the king tides coincided with a storm and brought waves and logs up and over areas such as Crescent Beach Road on Orcas.

Send your pictures to tina [@] sanjuans.org with information on when and where the picture was taken. By sharing your pictures you will help our community see the future. Visualizing sea level rise can help us understand how to reduce future impacts. FRIENDS will compile and share these pictures.

The WA Dept. of Ecology and WA Sea Grant also maintain a website to share your photos: https://www.flickr.com/groups/1611274@N22/pool

Always remember – your safety is more important than an image, so use caution in high wave or high water events.

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