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King Tides hitting California
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A series of exceptionally high tides began all along the California coast Tuesday, bringing the possibility of minor flooding to low-lying areas including bay fronts, beach parking lots, coastal roads and marinas.
The National Weather Service issued flood advisories for the so-called King Tides for portions of the coast from Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco south to San Diego through Friday.
In Los Angeles County, for example, Santa Monica was predicted to have high tides of 7.8 feet Wednesday and Thursday morning. Other locations were to exceed 8 feet.
The King Tides occur when the sun, Earth and moon align during new and full moons, and the moon is at perigee — closest to the Earth in its monthly orbit. They are usually only a minor problem unless high surf piggybacks on top of the high tides to send water surging, potentially damaging piers or shoreline homes.
Coastal authorities and organizations sought to use the Thanksgiving week tides to demonstrate the effects of predicted sea level rise as a result of climate change.
“The extremes of today will be the averages of the future,” Charles Lester, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, said in a statement. “Sea level rise will fundamentally challenge our ways of living and building along the coastline.”
The California King Tides Project, a group of state and federal agencies and non-profit organizations, urged people to watch and document the tides and any flooding in organized “coffee and King Tides breaks” from San Francisco’s Embarcadero to Belmont Shore in Long Beach.