What is a King Tide

It’s October in Miami Beach, which means it is time for our annual “King Tides.” We are not sure exactly what a king tide is, but what we do know is that there is flooding throughout Miami Beach.

This is not your ordinary too much rain, too quickly, type of flooding. Rather, this is ocean water seeping up through the drainage system type of flooding. If you take a peek at the bay or Indian Creek you will notice they are overflowing over the seawalls and onto the land. 

With King Tides on Miami Beach you can experience flooding on a sunny day. If you look closely enough you can also see salt water flowing up through the drainage vents. 

Wikipedia explains that King Tides are simply the very highest tides. They are naturally occurring, predictable events. This makes sense, this is not a phenomenon unique to Miami Beach. These are just the highest tides we are going to experience during the year. 

2017 King Tides are scheduled from October 5 - October 10. Take a look at the image below for detailed times when the tides will be the highest in October on Miami Beach. 

This story on CBSMiami.com states November 5th is projected to have the highest tides of the year. The King Tides are typically in September, October and November. We assume more details will become available as we approach the November King Tides.

Miami Beach is taking drastic measures to combat the flooding issues on low lying streets. King tides illustrate exactly how vulnerable these low lying areas are with sunny day floods. 

You can see the completed project in Sunset Harbour, where all of the streets were raised and high powered pump stations were installed to quickly pump water back out into the bay. 

Currently (this is being written on day 1 of the October King Tides) the Sunset Harbour area is not experiencing any flooding and it has been steadily raining in addition to the high tides. 

Indian Creek is currently under construction and similar to Sunset Harbour, the streets and sea wall will be raised along with new water pumps. Last year during King Tides this area was heavily flooded and experience heavy sunny day flooding. Temporary pumps were installed in an attempt to pump out as much water as possible.

In conclusion, King Tides are simply a name for the highest tides in any given year. Stay dry out there!