A King Tide Will Hit Metro Vancouver On A Daily Basis This Week – El Niño To Blame

A “king tide” will be hitting Metro Vancouver shores on a daily basis this week.

If you don’t know what a king tide is, well, it’s more than the normal average tide, it’s like a tide “on steroids” as The Weather Network explains.

The highest tides ever recorded in Vancouver were 5.61 m and in Victoria, 3.71 m.

“These are important numbers, but it also illustrates how these records are in jeopardy every single year. For example, the highest tide possible for Vancouver is approximately 5.0 meters during a king tide event, which would require only a 0.6-meter surge to coincide during a king high tide to break the previous all-time record,” the Weather Network notes.

How do king tides work?

King tides work just like the regular ones do. These are controlled by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. The sea level comes in much higher when this is happening.

This phenomenon takes place a few times a year, and it created very high tides.

Areas of the cities can even become flooded when the sea level rises during the event.

Residents In Metro Vancouver have even posted some images of the sea level rising on Twiter, and some of them said that these are definitely the effects of climate change.

Potential reasons

You can also take photos of the highest tides & help the city validate flood data. The rest of 2018’s King Tides are highest on the following dates and the following hours:

• Nov 27, 9:26am
• Nov 28, 10:18am
• Nov 29 11:10am
• Nov 30 11:59am

“Many factors come into play when forecasting high water levels, but we have to factor in a weak El Niño playing a role this winter season. These king tidal cycles are extremely sensitive time periods for coastal B.C., as vigorous storm systems can cause significant coastal erosion and in rare cases, inundation of lowest lying areas around the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island,” The Weather Network notes.