Here is a message from California Coastal Commission.
The California King Tides Project needs your help to photograph extreme high tides on January 11 & 12 and February 9. You can find local King Tide times, browse King Tide photos, and find resources for educators and parents on the California King Tides Project website.
Your photos help us understand what’s vulnerable to flooding today, plan for future sea level rise, and get us all talking and thinking about the impacts of the climate crisis and what we can do to make a difference.
It’s easy to participate in this community science project. 1) Find your local high tide time for one of the King Tides dates; 2) visit the shoreline on the coast, bay, or Delta, and notice your surroundings to ensure you are safe and are not disturbing any animals; 3) make sure your phone’s location services are turned on for your camera and then take your photo. The best photos show the water level next to landmarks such as cliffs, roads, buildings, bridge supports, sea walls, staircases, and piers. 4) Upload your photo! Our photo upload form includes instructions in both English and Spanish. If you have trouble, you can email [email protected].
Please note that there is some variation depending on location (California is a big state!). Be sure to take a look at your location on our tides map when you’re deciding what days to participate. Sometimes King Tides correspond with a storm swell to make them even higher, but we’re lucky when they don’t. You can check swell forecasts here.
What causes sea level rise, and what do King Tides have to do with it?
The sea level rise we’re experiencing now and will experience in the future is caused by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping in heat that would otherwise escape. When we burn fossil fuels, we’re adding more carbon dioxide, “thickening the blanket” and heating the earth, air, and ocean. Sea level is rising because land-based glaciers and ice sheets are melting into the ocean, and because water takes up more space when it warms. The amount of sea level rise we will ultimately experience depends on how quickly we stop burning fossil fuels.
King Tides themselves are not caused by sea level rise, but allow us to experience what higher sea level will be like. King Tides are the highest tides of the year, about a foot or two higher than average high tides, which corresponds to the one to two foot rise in sea level expected within the next few decades. When you observe the King Tides, picture the water level that high and higher every day. Documenting what King Tides look like today will help us responsibly plan for sea level rise in the future.
