By DANA TIMS/Lincoln Chronicle
The King Tides making their seasonal splash along the Oregon coast are anything but new.
Ever since the Earth, moon and sun have periodically aligned in the heavens, their combined gravitational pull has created the impressively large waves that now draw droves of visitors to the Oregon coast.
But scientists, area restaurants, shops and lodging owners all say that increased awareness of King Tides is increasing both the general awareness and appreciation of an event that this year will play out over three days this week and again in December and January.
“King tides draw people from all backgrounds and ages, and even folks from out-of-state, to the coast,” Rhiannon Bezore, Oregon King Tides coordinator, told Lincoln Chronicle. “It’s a great chance to experience the coast in a totally new way and to actually help contribute to something bigger.”
The Oregon King Tides Project, a joint venture coordinated by the Oregon Coastal Management Program and Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, began about 15 years ago, she said. Its goal was to invite “citizen scientists” to take pictures of areas impacted by king tides and to share them as a way to monitor erosion and help guide sea level rise modeling and mapping.
This year’s tides – Wednesday through Friday, then Dec. 4-6 and Jan. 1-4 – are expected to generate thousands of videos and photographs, which local planners and private landowners can use to determine where erosion is occurring and how they can best plan future developments to avoid or mitigate the worst impacts.
“Areas with the highest tides and coastal erosion gives us a glimpse into the future,” Bezore said. “The more we know what’s really taking place on the ground, the better we can prepare for what comes next.”
No cold shoulders
Businesses up and down the coast are already preparing for an influx of visitors – enhanced by the growing King Tide marketing efforts of local chambers of commerces, motels and plenty of publicity by Portland-area TV stations and inland newspapers.
And why not? The king tides come at a time, after all, known in the hospitality sector as “shoulder season.” That’s when summer’s end has seen the departure of the type of business needed to get most establishments through their far leaner winter months.
Some industry wags refer to the king tides as “shoulder-to-shoulder season,” since prime viewing areas along especially spectacular rocky areas end up filled with hordes of visitors.
At Whale Bites Cafe in Depoe Bay, for instance, co-owner Joshua Welch said his establishment usually is open only five days a week, down from summertime’s six days, due to declining activity.
Not this year.
“We do know the king tides bring a lot of people to town,” Welch said, noting that Depoe Bay is regarded as a prize viewing spot due to the rocky outcropping that fronts all of downtown. “It just makes sense to take advantage of that.”
That lesson was driven home even harder last January, he said, when the Whale Bites’ normal January seasonal closure was exposed as premature by relatively huge crowds showing up for what was the final King Tide of the season.
“It was almost like summertime out here for that one,” Welch said, “and we heavily regretted being closed.”
As a result, the restaurant will be open for at least the Jan. 1-4 King Tide, and perhaps the entire month.
“If we can get a huge supplemental boost from Mother Nature,” he said, “we’ll take it.”
At Tidal Raves Seafood Grill overlooking the cliffs of Depoe Bay, host and server Jordan Fiskas, will be going through her first King Tides rush. But she has heard all the stories and is excited for what should be a total of 10 bustling days.
“There’ll be a line out the door and down the street,” she said. “It should be crazy.”
Safety first
Any time of year, inclement weather can make a coastal visit challenging. But King Tides, when combined with the type of unrelated tidal surges expected this week due to strong storms, puts an exclamation point on all of that.
“A combination of the highest tides of the season and periods of heavy rain can make things far worse than normal,” said Lee Picard, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Portland office. “People really need to beware.”
Flooding advisories are already in effect for parts of the north Oregon coast, he said. Those are expected to be expanded into other areas due to the heavy rainfall forecast over the coming days.
He provided one additional precaution.
“Most people don’t know that most flood-related deaths occur in cars,” Picard said. “Even if you can see the surface of a flooded road, you don’t know what’s going on beneath it. Our recommendation is to avoid the coast unless you absolutely have to be there.”
Then there are the “sneaker wave” advisories that have also been issued for most Oregon beaches. They follow several recent deaths, where beachgoers turned their backs on waves they didn’t realize could have deadly consequences.
Warnings from state agencies specifically advise people to avoid jetties and logs near the waterline on beaches. North Lincoln Fire & Rescue even created a special Facebook post warning wave watchers to be extra careful.
When tides are king
The King Tides Project’s Bezore and others say that complete viewing safety can be achieved by finding a high spot that’s well away from wet-sand indications that tides can reach that point.
Do that, and the viewing experience will show off the Oregon coast at its peak, say they.
In terms of planning for the first of this season’s three king tides, high tide projections for both Thursday and Friday should fall at roughly the same hours, with daytime high tides forecast at 11:44 a.m. Thursday and at 12:28 p.m. Friday.
Regardless of the time and exact day, however, peak viewing should be available throughout the three-day run.
“These are such interesting natural phenomena,” Bezore said. “And we’re very excited to know so many people are going to be out here watching and really experiencing them.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com
