King tides are back in South Florida — and they’ll coincide with heavy rain midweek
King tides will be back this week all over South Florida, lasting through at least Wednesday. The tides will be the highest each morning, with the evening high tides being slightly lower.
Based on measurements taken at the South Port Everglades tidal station, Monday’s tide peaked at 7:56 a.m.
Tuesday’s high tide will peak at 8:36 a.m., and Wednesday’s high tide will crest at 9:21 a.m.
In a statement, the National Weather Service’s Miami office said that “minor coastal flooding is expected around periods of high tide beginning today and lasting through at least mid week for vulnerable Atlantic coast locations.” A Coastal Flood Statement is currently in effect through late Wednesday.
The National Weather Service is also calling for heavy rain Tuesday through Thursday, with likely totals in the eastern sections of Broward and Palm Beach Counties ranging from 2 to 3 inches, and worst-case rainfalls of 6 inches in some areas. These rains will coincide with king tides Wednesday morning, and could result in flooding, especially in coastal areas where rising tides meet runoff from “repeated bouts of heavy rainfall.”
This week’s event, which is triggered by the new moon, will be the second-to-last for the year. The last king tides will rise in two weeks, from Nov. 25 to 28, around the full moon.
Larger tides occur when the moon and sun align on new and full moons, exerting greater gravitational pull on the ocean, causing it to bulge out.
Additionally, the moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, so at times it swings closer to the surface of the ocean than others, exerting even more pull. When the sun-moon-Earth alignment occurs at the same time as the moon swinging closer to the ocean surface, king tides result.