OLYMPIA — Higher-than-usual winter tides are being seen in Puget Sound through Thursday.
The tides, referred to as “king tides,” occurred along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and on the Pacific Coast last week, the state Department of Ecology said.
They will return to the Strait on Jan. 18-22 and the Pacific coast Jan. 19-24.
In the Puget Sound, which includes Hood Canal, they began Tuesday and will be seen through Thursday, then return Jan. 13-17.
These higher-than-usual tides occur when the sun and moon’s gravitational pull reinforce one another, Ecology said.
The department is inviting members of the public to share their photos of the tides, asking that photos be taken of areas where the high water levels can be gauged against familiar landmarks such as sea walls, jetties, bridge supports or buildings.
To find where and when the highest tides will occur, visit Ecology’s king tide map and schedule at http://tinyurl.com/
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Public beaches can be located at the department’s Coastal Atlas at http://tinyurl.com/6t6ofea.
Photos — with date, time and location of photo noted — can be uploaded on the Washington King Tide Photo Initiative Flickr Group at www.flickr.com/groups/1611274@N22.
Last winter, Ecology collected more than 250 king tide photos.
King tides offer a glimpse of how rising sea levels from global climate change could affect the state’s coastal areas, Ecology said.
As global temperatures rise, the oceans warm slightly and expand, ice caps and glaciers melt, and more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, it said.
This causes sea levels to rise and could affect Washington’s marine areas by intensifying flooding, especially during high tides and major storms; shifting coastal beaches inland; increasing coastal bluff erosion; endangering houses and other structures such as roads, seawalls and utilities that are built near the shore; or threatening coastal freshwater and connected underground water supplies.
For more information, visit www.ecy.wa.gov.
