No Storm, But "King Tide" Floods Miami, Other Areas

King tide flooding Sunday in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Photo by Daniel Varela, Miami Herald. 

It was a beautiful, sunny but hot day in Miami Sunday.  It hasn't rained there in days and there were no storms or tropical systems anywhere near southeast Florida.

Yet high tides flooded streets and parking lots and other areas in and around Miami, despite the lack of storms.

Welcome to king tides, now made much more noticeable by climate change.

King tides are higher than normal tides that come certain times of the year during full or new moons. In recent years, due to a combination of factors, these tides are increasingly causing minor flooding up and down the East Coast. Southeast Florida is one epicenter of this phenomenon, as are places like Charleston, South Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia.

In general the Southeastern coast is prone to king tides. Not only is the sea level rising, but the land is sinking, so that's a double whammy.

These king tides are known as nuisance floods because they get in the way but don't cause much in the way of immediate damage. But salt water infiltrates aquifers, and the salt water can damage cars, foundations and other property.

On top of that, if you get flooding on a nice sunny day, imagine what would happen if a hurricane was roaring up the coast during a king tide. Combine that with a storm surge and you get real trouble.

And of course these nuisance king tide floods are getting more frequent as sea levels rise.

According to Climate Central:

"From 2005 to 2015, the median annual frequency of flooding days more than doubled along the stretch of coast from Florida to North Carolina, according to an analysis by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The coast between Virginia and Maine saw a median increase of 75 percent during the same period."

That specter probably also makes people think twice about living near the coast.

Another trouble with king tides is that now they're flooding neighborhoods. When the tide goes out, the water takes fertilizers from lawns, septic tank ickiness and other debris back into Biscayne Bay, increasing pollution there, notes the Miami Herald.

Volunteers on Sunday waded into the king tides Sunday to collect water samples to study how this pollution is moving and affecting coastal waters, says the Miami Herald.

The king tides are continuing today, with coastal flood advisories and statements in effect from Florida to Long Island, New York.

Here's a video of king tide flooding in Key West, Florida this past Friday. Again, notice the lack of storminess and calm winds:

https://www.climatecentral.org/news/rising-tides-near-daily-flooding-americas-shorelines-21935