King Tides: When to See the Year's Highest Water
A few times a year, the sun and moon line up to produce the highest tides on the calendar — king tides. They flood low-lying waterfronts for an hour or two, draw photographers to seawalls, and quietly deliver the deepest low tides of the winter later the same day.
What a king tide is
King tide is the everyday name for a perigean spring tide: a new or full moon (which alone produces the bigger 'spring' tides) arriving while the moon is also near perigee, its closest point to Earth. The alignments stack, and the tide range swells a foot or more beyond a normal month's extremes.
It's astronomy, not weather — king tides are in the tide tables months ahead. Weather decides how dramatic they get: a storm's low pressure and onshore wind can add another foot on top of the prediction.
When to see one
Scan your station's tide chart for the highest highs of the year — they cluster in runs of three or four days around a new or full moon. On the West Coast the showpiece king tides come in November through January, peaking mid-morning; the East and Gulf coasts see their highest water most often in the fall.
Pick the day with the highest predicted high, arrive half an hour early, and stay for the peak — the spectacle is the top of the curve, when docks float high and low-lying lots and paths go under.
Where and how to watch
Good vantage points are elevated and set back: a waterfront park, a harbor overlook, a bluff trail. Harbors are especially photogenic — ramps go flat, pilings vanish, and the water stands where sidewalks usually are.
King-tide photos are useful science: coastal programs run King Tides Project photo initiatives that use them to document what routine flooding will look like as sea level rises. Shoot a recognizable landmark at the peak and submit it.
The flip side: the winter's best lows
The same alignment that stacks the high also deepens the low — king-tide days carry the biggest minus tides of the winter, arriving later the same day. On the West Coast that means afternoon and early-evening tidepooling and clamming windows in the middle of winter — the opposite of summer's early-morning minus tides, and close enough to sunset that you should check the light as well as the tide.
Check the whole day's curve on your station page: watch the flood at the peak, then come back for the minus tide.
Stay safe
King tides land in storm-swell season, and the two stack. Watch from elevation and distance, never from jetties, rock outcrops, or the outer edge of a seawall — overtopping waves and sneaker waves are the real hazard, and you should never turn your back on the ocean.
Don't walk or drive through saltwater flooding: depths deceive, and salt water is hard on everything it touches. If a path is under water, the tide will hand it back within a couple of hours.