LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — In this week's Let's Get Out There, we head to Lincoln City for a look at the annual king tides. Why do they happen? And what can they tell us about the future of the coast?
If you visit the Oregon coast in the winter, you have a chance to see one of mother nature’s crowning achievements. The king tides are a naturally occurring phenomenon around the world, several times a year.
"They happen when the sun, the moon, and the earth are all in alignment and when all of our orbits are closest to each other," said Rhiannon Bezore, a coastal shore specialist with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.
King tides are a reminder of nature’s power. Ann Mack and her husband David Cady were visiting from Missouri on a sunny December Friday. With binoculars in hand, they were on the lookout for migrating gray whales at the Rocky Creek Viewpoint, just south of Depoe Bay. Even gazing at the horizon, it was hard to take your eyes off the huge crashing waves.
"It is very impressive," Mack said. "I have the utmost respect for the ocean."
"We love the power of the water and just seeing the pounding waves shooting up 20 or 30 feet over the rocks has been really beautiful to observe," added Cady.
Just up Highway 101 in Lincoln City, the waves weren’t as impressive, but Bezore said plenty of lessons can be learned about the future of the coast through these calmer days.
"When it's not as stormy, they may not be as exciting to view because it's not going to be as much flooding," she said. "But at the same time, that is a more realistic idea of what we'll see at normal high tides during sea level rise."
Bezore also works with the Oregon King Tides Project. The project relies heavily on photos submitted by community members to document tide levels at different coastal locations. For what it's worth, there are prizes in four photo categories.
"It kind of gives us a step ahead of sea level rise so that we know areas that we might want to focus a little bit more attention on or might need a little more help," Bezore said. "We can already see areas that are more susceptible to flooding and know where we might want to focus our attention. We might want to do some mitigating factors or projects that might help protect some of those areas."
The next king tide events in 2024 are Jan. 11-13 and Feb 8-10.
It’s a great reason to get out to the coast to observe nature's strength; just be safe doing so," Bezore said. "It’s a good idea to stay off the beach during king tides, and no matter what, never turn your back on the ocean, to avoid things like sneaker waves that come up fast as the name implies.
Let's Get Out there airs once a week on KGW's 4 p.m. newscast and The Good Stuff, which airs Monday-Thursday at 7 p.m. We're including viewer photos for this series. You can text your photos to 503-226-5088 or post them on the KGW Facebook page.