Every year in early winter, high tides in Oregon are higher than usual. These tides, which include what are called ‘king tides’ in some places, are being documented to help understand the impacts of sea levels rise in the coming decades. You are invited to participate in a project to document these high tides, which can be used to illustrate where tide levels are expected to occur with increasing frequency in the future. We encourage you to take pictures of this season’s king tides, which are predicted to occur on November 12-15th, 2012, December 12-14th, 2012 and January 10-12th, 2013 and then upload your photographs to our Flickr group. The more people participate, the better we will be able to document the highest extent of tidewater during the 2012-2013 winter king tides.
1) Choose a site to photograph
2) Pick a day and time to photograph high water levels
3) Take the photographs
4) Upload your photos to Oregon’s King Tide Flickr site
1) Choose a site
Eventually, the King Tide photo project wants to get photographs of the highest tides along accessible shorelines around all of Oregon’s estuaries. The most important places to photograph are low-lying areas next to the shore. This might be low-lying roads, sidewalks, parking lots, or wetlands. In particular, it would be great to get photographs of places at the upper end of sloughs and on rivers and streams near the head of tide. What’s most important is to get a photograph of the water level against something, so that a person can go back at a later date and identify the high tide level in the photograph. "Before and after" pictures showing typical high tide and the extreme high water levels for the same location would be particularly useful.
2) Pick the day and time
Once you have selected the locations where you want to photograph high water levels, check the tide predictions in your area for one of the king tides. This season, high tides and king tides are predicted to occur from November 13-15th, 2012, December 12-14th, 2012, and January 10-12th, 2013. Make sure to factor in local knowledge about time differences between predicted tides and high tides at your selected photo location. You can use the table below as a starting point to plan you outing. For complete Oregon tide predictions from NOAA, go to NOAA’s tide predictions website for Oregon. Remember that it can take up to an hour or more for a high tide to travel from the mouth of a bay or slough—the usual location of tide gauges—to the location of the head of tide. Factor in the time it takes for both you and the high tide to arrive at about the same place at about the same time.
3) Take the photographs
The best photographs of high tides will show tide levels and areas that are inundated, in particular areas where water levels can be gauged against sea walls, jetties, bridge supports, dikes, buildings, roads, or other infrastructure or features. When you take your picture make note of the location, date, the time of day, and the direction you are facing as you take the picture. Data from a GPS data can be particularly valuable.
4) Need Some Examples?
Need some examples? Here are a few photos and why they are helpful.
Information needed to make your pictures a valuable part of this photo record:
• Take photos that show inundated areas around infrastructure.
• If possible, take two photos of the same spot, standing in the same place. One at the king tide. The other, for comparison purposes, at a typical high tide.
• Make sure to include the following information:
1. date, including year
2. time
3. location (pin on the Flickr map)
4. photo orientation
5) Upload the photos to our Flickr site
Share your photographs of this season’s highest tides through Oregon’s King Tide Initiative Flickr group.
Watch our video on how to upload photos to our Flickr group below:
King Tide times for January 2013
along the Oregon Coast
Locations are listed from the Columbia River south down to Brookings.
The bold type face indicates the predicted highest tide in the series.
| Location |
|
Jan. 11th
King Tide |
Jan. 12th
King Tide |
Predicted
Highest Tide (feet) |
| Knappa |
|
|
1:45 PM |
10.0 |
| Astoria Port Docks |
|
|
1:08 PM |
9.8 |
| Young's Bay |
|
|
1:03 PM |
10.4 |
| Warrenton |
|
|
1:03 PM |
10.2 |
| Seaside |
|
|
12:03 PM |
7.0 |
| Brighton |
|
|
12:07 PM |
9.7 |
| Nehalem |
|
|
12:33 PM |
8.9 |
| Barview |
|
|
11:58 AM |
9.3 |
| Garibaldi |
|
|
12:42 PM |
9.7 |
| Bay City |
|
|
12:49 PM |
8.8 |
| Tillamook |
|
|
1:08 PM |
8.0 |
| Netarts |
|
|
12:33 PM |
8.5 |
| Nestucca mouth |
|
|
12:11 PM |
9.5 |
| Taft |
|
|
12:04 PM |
8.1 |
| Kernville |
|
|
12:40 PM |
7.4 |
| Depoe Bay |
|
|
11:51 AM |
10.3 |
| Yaquina Bar |
|
|
11:50 AM |
9.8 |
| Newport |
|
|
12:00 PM |
10.0 |
| Yaquina |
|
|
12:11 PM |
10.3 |
| Winant |
|
|
12:19 PM |
10.3 |
| Toledo |
|
|
12:45 PM |
10.1 |
| South Beach |
|
|
12:08 PM |
10.3 |
| Waldport |
|
|
12:16 PM |
9.5 |
| Siuslaw mouth |
|
|
11:49 AM |
9.1 |
| Florence |
|
|
12:39 PM |
8.1 |
| Umpqua mouth |
|
|
12:00 PM |
8.6 |
| Gardiner |
|
|
12:51 PM |
8.3 |
| Reedsport |
|
|
1:06 PM |
8.3 |
| Charleston |
|
|
11:55 AM |
9.5 |
| Empire |
|
|
12:32 PM |
8.1 |
| Coos Bay |
|
|
1:21 PM |
9.1 |
| Bandon |
|
|
11:50 AM |
8.7 |
| Port Orford |
|
|
11:29 AM |
9.1 |
| Wedderburn |
|
|
11:25 AM |
8.2 |
| Brookings |
|
|
11:17 AM |
8.6 |
For complete Oregon tide predictions from NOAA,
go to NOAA’s tide predictions website for Oregon
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have additional questions, please send them to cinamon.moffett@state.or.us
1. What are king tides?
Tides are caused by the gravitational influence of the sun, the moon, and the earth on the earth’s oceans. When the orbits and alignment of the earth, moon and sun come into a particular relationship, the tidal range is at its greatest; low tides are especially low and high tides are especially high.
The term ‘king tide’ is used in Australia and in some Pacific Island nations and refers to tides that occur when the moon’s orbit comes closest to the earth, the earth orbit is closest to the sun, and the sun, moon and earth are in alignment thereby increasing its influence on the tides. The term is becoming commonly used in the United States. These tidal events are also known as perigean spring tides.
In Oregon, we are using the term ‘king tide’ to refer to the highest winter tides. These highest tides occur each winter when the earth is closest to the sun in its yearly orbit, and when the sun and moon are aligned so that their gravitational forces reinforce each other to have a particularly strong effect on the Earth’s tides.
For more information about tides, please visit http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/education.html
2. Why are some tides higher than what is predicted?
Local weather conditions during a high tide event can greatly influence the actual observed water levels. If low atmospheric pressure system or a winter storm coincides with a high tide, water levels could be measurably higher than the predicted level published in the NOAA tide tables. Predicted tides are for a specific point along the coast or estuary. Tide levels in nearby locations will probably be different from predicted tides, because of a variety of factors. For example, the shape of bays and estuaries also can magnify the intensity of the local tides.
3. What is a perigean spring tide?
Adapted from http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/faq2.html#15
The moon is the primary source of the gravitational forces which cause the tides. The proximity of the moon to the earth affects the magnitude of a tide at any given time. In each of its 28-day elliptical orbits, the moon reaches a "perigee," which is the closest point of its elliptical orbit to the earth. There will be a slight increase in the range of tides at the perigee of the moon’s orbit, when the moon is closest to the earth. Increases in the range of the tides is seen by a higher than average high tide and a lower than average low tide. In addition, twice each month (around the new moon and full moon), when the sun, earth, and moon are nearly in line, there is an increase in the tidal range. Such tides are called "spring tides." When the occurrence of a new or full moon coincides with the "perigee" of the moon, it’s termed the "perigean spring tides".
The Oregon King Tide Photo Project is endorsed by Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition and the Surfrider Foundation
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