Hey Brian, saw you on the news the other night talking about the high tides coming. I see there is a 4.6 M tide for Tsawwassen near the end of the month and a 4.9 M at Acadia.
Is this a record? I've never seen it that high before. I wonder if it will have an impact on wave height, it might mean flooding in Boundary Bay as well?
Brian C on CTV/ Tide Height
4 posts
• Page 1 of 1
I was talking with the Parkie (Centennial Beach caretaker dude who locks the gates/minds the washrooms/chases kiters away) on Thursday after sailing and he told me how the construction site that is right next to where we launch is having to have a second retaining wall installed (to the tune of $80K per time 
) after the first one was compromised/washed out by the storms and large tides...they are now doing it a second time (what could you do with $160K??!!) and are facing those King tides coming at the end of the month. Talk about some pressure to get the job done 
) after the first one was compromised/washed out by the storms and large tides...they are now doing it a second time (what could you do with $160K??!!) and are facing those King tides coming at the end of the month. Talk about some pressure to get the job done - Chuck
- Posts: 422
- Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:36 pm
Michael,
We get these very high (King) tides every year around now. This year's highest are mid November (17th and 18th I recall), late November (27 & 28) and Dec 26 - 29th. This year they are all forecast to be 4.9 m at Jericho. Last year's maximum tides were slightly higher at 5.0m on Boxing Day.
The actual water level depends on the weather at the time of the King Tide. If we have a high pressure system with a strong NW'erly the water level tends to be slightly lower but the waves make up for it. More importantly, if there is a very strong low that coincides with the King Tide then we are prone to a storm surge of up to 0.7m that causes an even higher water
level than predicted in the tide tables. The last time that happened was December 2012 when a 0.5m surge coincided with a 5.0m tide. The total water level of 5.5 m at Jericho caused minor flooding in the park there, and came very close to flooding a few developed low areas in Vancouver.
Boundary Bay is particularly susceptible to the effect of King Tides with storm surges, since they also tend to be accompanied by our beloved SE winds. You'll probably recall the severe flooding in the Boundary Bay neighborhood in the mid-2000's (I think 2006 or 2007), which was due to exactly that effect.
Hopefully we get a lot of strong SE winds this winter, but they don't happen to coincide with the few hours that we have King Tides.
Brian
We get these very high (King) tides every year around now. This year's highest are mid November (17th and 18th I recall), late November (27 & 28) and Dec 26 - 29th. This year they are all forecast to be 4.9 m at Jericho. Last year's maximum tides were slightly higher at 5.0m on Boxing Day.
The actual water level depends on the weather at the time of the King Tide. If we have a high pressure system with a strong NW'erly the water level tends to be slightly lower but the waves make up for it. More importantly, if there is a very strong low that coincides with the King Tide then we are prone to a storm surge of up to 0.7m that causes an even higher water
level than predicted in the tide tables. The last time that happened was December 2012 when a 0.5m surge coincided with a 5.0m tide. The total water level of 5.5 m at Jericho caused minor flooding in the park there, and came very close to flooding a few developed low areas in Vancouver.
Boundary Bay is particularly susceptible to the effect of King Tides with storm surges, since they also tend to be accompanied by our beloved SE winds. You'll probably recall the severe flooding in the Boundary Bay neighborhood in the mid-2000's (I think 2006 or 2007), which was due to exactly that effect.
Hopefully we get a lot of strong SE winds this winter, but they don't happen to coincide with the few hours that we have King Tides.
Brian
- Brian C
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:21 pm
By the way, the highest recorded water level at Point Atkinson (and therefore at Acadia too) was 5.62m so that must have been due to the phenomena I described. That would be just high enough to cross Marine Dr at Locarno and flood the homes across the street. We have sandbagged there the last couple years to avoid a recurrence of that flooding event.
- Brian C
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:21 pm
4 posts
• Page 1 of 1