Supermoon King Tide Brings Coastal Flooding Concerns

by Tristan Umeda, owner of Family Pet & Supply.

We are witnessing a unique lunar event, as the moon is getting as close to us as it has been since the 1940s. You no doubt saw her in the sky last night, and perhaps will see it tonight. They call it a Perigree Moon, and it is the opposite of an Apogee (furthest distance) Moon.

The original inhabitants of the area called it a Beaver Moon, and the weather man calls it a Supermoon. We're in a run of them, having had one in October, and awaiting the one in December. This, however, is what Fred G. Sanford would call "the Big One."

The moon exerts influence on many things. Aboriginals, as we saw, use the moons to know when to check the beaver traps for fur. Werewolves and Witches favor the full moon. Smugglers hate the full moon, with the Outer Cape term "mooncusser" stemming from this professional dislike.

Coastal Residents also are wary of Supermoons. Supermoons produce King Tides, also known locally as Flood Tides.  Flood Tides are the kind of tides where the road or the basement flood without the usual nor'easter storm catalyst.

Well, at least we won't have a storm to worry about, right? Wait... what?

A storm will move up the East Coast at us Tuesday, and this will get that Supermoon/King Tide amped up even more. This won't be a crusher of a storm, with winds more along the 15-30 MPH range than the 35-74 MPH range. Those winds will be sufficient to work up some surf, and the wves will arrive at the worst possible astrological time or astronomical time or whichever one doesn't mean your horoscope.

This isn't a storm that will tear your house down and beat you with it, but it may flood the road or give you a brand new indoor basement pool.

Brant Rock is looking at a 12 foot high tide at 11:13 AM Tuesday. zthe Sandwich end of the Cape Cod Canal gets an 11.3 foot high tide. Scituate gets an 11.8 foot high tide. Barnstable Harbor gets a 12.5 foot tide. Plymouth Harbor gets a 12.8 foot tide. Duxbury Harbor gets a 13 foot tide. Check your high tide here.

We'll be at Duxbury Beach tomorrow to see what's what. We were at Plymouth for high tide today, as you see below. We'll be back with an update tomorrow.

I stole Tristan's pic because this is what my skillz do to a Supermoon, below: