A meteorological phenomenon known as "king tides" is coming to east- and south-facing beaches along the Southeast coast early next week and will lead to disruptive coastal flooding, warn AccuWeather meteorologists.
The extra push of water ashore, occurring around high tides on Monday and Tuesday from Florida to North Carolina, will be assisted by our moon, despite the fact that it's more than 220,000 miles away from Earth.
"A full moon occurs on Monday, and tides are typically higher than average around that time as the Earth, sun and moon are all aligned," explained AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski. "This causes their gravitational pulls to combine and produce higher tides." The moon will also be approaching perigee, the closest it is to Earth all year long, adding to that pull.
An added complication of a strong onshore flow will only help to worsen tidal flooding in the coming days.
"A large and nearly stationary area of high pressure off the Northeast coast will produce day after day of easterly flow this weekend into the first part of next week," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski. Lower pressure from a broad storm with tropical moisture in the Gulf and southwestern Atlantic will only add to the onshore flow.
