Higher-than-normal tides are hitting the coast this week as the second round of the winter’s king tides occur Wednesday through Friday.
Following this week’s tides, subsequent king tides will take place Jan. 11-13; and, Feb. 8-10. The first king tides of the season occurred just after Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, a high tide of 8.73 feet occurs about noon, followed by a minus tide of .63 feet at 7:30 p.m. The high tide Thursday is 8.76 feet at 12:56 p.m. and 8.66 feet at 1:45 p.m. Friday.
This month’s king tides are one to two feet higher than normal high tides.
Just like their far smaller “sneaker wave” cousins, the king tides can pack deadly consequences prompting coastal groups to put out more warnings as the growing interest in the high tides bring more visitors to the coast, especially around holidays.
Does anyone know why the maximum tides cited during king tides can be different in different tide tables even for the same location? The maximum king tide heights shown on my Android phone app, Tides Near Me, often are a foot or more higher than the maximum shown on NOAA tide tables and no one I’ve talked to ( including The Oregonian reporter who normally does their king tide stories) seems to know why the discrepancy.
I don’t know why, but it is true that different sources have differing numbers. One thing to keep in mind is that the closest location of tide measurement is Waldport, and Yachats’ low and high tides occur about a half hour before the published Waldport times. Checking to see that your source is quoting Waldport (as opposed to Newport, say) might be one way to reduce the discrepancy. Another would be to somehow determine whether NOAA (or another organization) has the most accurate tide level predictions. I don’t know how to go about that, but in my experience the overall figures that differ in one tide chart or website to another are not huge.