VIDEO: See how today’s ‘king tide’ reigned over West Seattle shore

Weather conditions gave this morning’s “king tide” a turbocharge – almost two feet higher than the predicted high tide. Thanks to everyone who sent images of the result – first, above and below, video from Nils von Veh at Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza.

Holli Margell was at Alki too and sent these views:

Further east at Alki, Michelle Riggen-Ransom‘s photo shows the sea swamping the sand:

And Elizabeth Butler sent photos from the Fauntleroy shore:

Tomorrow’s high tide, expected to hit 12.5 feet just after 9:30 am, is likely to be closer to what’s predicted, since the weather has calmed.

Jort January 7, 2022 (10:22 pm)

I must admit, the symbolism of the miniature Statue of Liberty submerged in 2085 with just her little torch and crown sticking out above the water will be quite staggering. But, on the other hand, just think how awesome it is for every person in a family living in sprawl 50 miles from a city to have an enormous, semi-truck sized pickup to drive back and forth to the Costco gas pumps. Tradeoffs, I guess. Such is life. Too bad we can’t possibly do anything about it.

Gatewood resident January 8, 2022 (7:16 am)

I bet you’re fun at parties
Smoosh January 8, 2022 (7:56 am)

Yes. It’s all the fault of the individual family unit using the tools available to them to live. Let’s all cast a jaundiced eye at each other, just whatever you do don’t look up. It’s all your neighbors fault. (/s for those in the back). It’s ok: Jeff, Joe, and Bruce will surely save us.
Pessoa January 8, 2022 (10:51 am)

The last IPCC report was, in reality, less dire than the one issued in 2001. In the 1980’s the IPCC was predicting a several meter rise in sea levels by 2100, and over the years this estimate has been gradually revised downward. Now, it’s estimated at roughly .3 meter. This is not the trendline that points to a submerged Statute of Liberty by the end of the century.

Mj January 7, 2022 (10:35 pm)

Thank you for the pictures and videos

Smoosh January 7, 2022 (11:03 pm)

Looks like an opening shot to a Planet of the Apes prequel.

Insertname January 7, 2022 (11:20 pm)

What a day it was. Great photos and videos. Thanks for the wonderful documentation 🍻

CarDriver January 8, 2022 (6:45 am)

Jort. Climate change has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with how king tides occur.

WSB January 8, 2022 (12:30 pm)

The connection here is that scientists are using tides like these to research what will be routine in the future.
- Pessoa January 8, 2022 (1:00 pm)
  
  True, and that is an important clarification, though the sort of sea level rise that is expected by 2100, even aided by a storm surge or tides, is not likely to submerge a significant portion of the Statue of Liberty. Most models predict around a 12 inch sea level rise by 2100 – a concern, but not the apocalypse.

Mj January 8, 2022 (2:01 pm)

The videos and pictures are fascinating to review. Why Jort did you have to bring your anti car rant here? In the near future private vehicles will run on electron’s not gas.

bill January 8, 2022 (7:55 pm)

Correct use of “reign” is so confusing.

WSB January 8, 2022 (8:05 pm)

We used the word correctly. Meant as a play on words, “king … reigned.” The shore was certainly subject to being overrun by the tide. – TR

Math Teacher January 9, 2022 (5:26 pm)

But of course there’s lots of data to show that climate change is already impacting water levels. Here’s a cool graph showing Seattle’s extreme tides over the past 120 years: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/est/est_station.shtml?stnid=9447130  Yesterday’s high water was a combination of an astronomically predicted king tide, plus weather, plus a higher baseline sea level.

Math Teacher January 9, 2022 (5:31 pm)

@Pessoa – Totally agree that the predicted 12-inch rise is not apocalyptic. But it does mean that local flooding events that used to happen, say, once every 10 years, will instead happen several times each year. I.E., a routine 12-foot high tide event will have the impact of what is now a fairly unusual 13-foot tide.

Pessoa January 9, 2022 (6:51 pm)

Quite probably. I think, however, that our future is not going to be as bleak as is commonly believed. I think a poorly understood – or accounted for – negative feedback loop(s) may prevent some of the worst climate disruptions, though this may not be the prevailing opinion.

Math Teacher January 10, 2022 (8:40 am)

One can always hope. To be clear, however, virtually all reputable scientific models do predict our accumulation of greenhouse gasses to result in scary, apocalyptic sea level rise if not addressed. Models vary in predicting the timing of the big Greenland and Antarctic melts of land-ice, because ice tends to be very stable, but there is zero doubt about the chain: fossil fuel emissions lead to atmospheric build up of greenhouse gasses, which lead to significant temperature rise, which leads to ice melting. I don’t hope for the discovery of major negative feedback loops. I do hope for the eventual advancement of geo-engineering techniques to pull the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere before we get to ice collapse, and I hope for world-wide movement away from fossil fuels over the coming decades to slow (not stop) the warming and give humankind time for technological advancement.

Pessoa January 10, 2022 (12:42 pm)

I’ll reserve a great deal of skepticism about the more dire warnings that are coming from the scientific community, vis a vis climate change, so in that respect we’ll have to respectfully disagree. I don’t think anything is really ever “settled science” to use the term that is used frequently in regards to climate change, except basic physical laws. The principles of greenhouse gases and warming are well established, but weighting the inputs that go into climate models is much more difficult and I believe that negative feedback loop mechanisms ( already present in nature) will act as a very significant brake to the worst scenario’s.

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