You may have heard the phrase "king tide" before, but what does it really mean? AccuWeather's Anna Azallion explains ahead of the risk of coastal flooding in the Southeast.
00:01Well, as we head into next week, everyone highlighted in red along the coast here should be on alert for king tides.
00:08If you're not familiar with this term, let's dive into it.
00:11So first of all, king tide, it's not exactly a scientific term, but many people use it to describe exceptionally high tides.
00:19So to understand king tides, we have to understand tides.
00:23Let's go over the basics.
00:24So the definition at its core, these are very long waves that move across the ocean,
00:29and they're caused by gravitational forces, mostly between the Earth and the Moon, but to some extent, the sun.
00:35And actually, with our king tides, the sun comes into play a little bit more than usual.
00:39And overall, if you're not familiar with these terms, a high tide is when the highest point in the wave reaches the coast.
00:45It reaches the shore.
00:46The low tide is when the lowest point reaches the shore.
00:49There's usually one or two of these every day, depending on your exact location across the world.
00:54So let's talk about why this is happening right now, the king tide.
00:59So overall, high tides are higher at the full moon.
01:03And we do have a full moon coming up October 6th.
01:07Mark your calendars.
01:08But not only is it a full moon, it is the harvest super moon.
01:12So breaking that down, the harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox.
01:16And then a super moon happens when the moon appears larger and brighter because it's closest to the Earth.
01:24Also, at this full moon, the Earth, the moon, and the sun are kind of all in a line, which creates the gravitational forces for these even higher than normal high tides, even higher than at your typical full moon.
01:36Now, in this particular scenario, the onshore flow that's continuing, that worsens the situation
01:42overall.
01:43And ultimately, this can lead to some coastal flooding.
01:46So that's why these areas highlighted in red should be on alert and prepared.
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