King tides flood roadways, give Bay Area preview of sea levels in 2050

The California Coastal Commission says that king tides are a preview of what sea levels could look like in the Bay Area in 25 years. The California Coastal Commission says by 2050, ocean levels in the Golden State could rise more than a foot.

ALVISO, Calif. - The King Tides made their way into the Bay Area this week, and they will be staying around this weekend. The high water levels left flooded roadways around Marin County on Thursday morning.

The California Coastal Commission says that king tides are a preview of what sea levels could look like in the Bay Area in 25 years.

The California Coastal Commission says by 2050, ocean levels in the Golden State could rise more than a foot.

King Tides push up over the edge of The Embarcadero in SF. (Photo courtesy of SF Bay Coastal Development Commission )

By the year 2100, sea levels could be more than six feet higher, putting areas like Alviso at high risk for flooding. The Clifornia King Tides Project was created to help showcase what future sea levels could look like.

The supermoon made its appearance Thursday too, and while some people were looking up, others were studying its impact on the tides.

Thomas Connolly is an associate professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs with San Jose State University. He and his team study the effects of changing tides.

"The supermoon is happening because it's where we have a full moon, but it's also a time when the moon is at its closest point to the earth and its orbit. So because the tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, that's one factor," Connolly told KTVU.

Larry Goldzband is the Executive Director for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and his organization hopes to help prepare the Bay Area for higher sea levels in the future.

"King tides are sort of an early warning system for the Bay Area, because it allows the Bay Area residents to recognize that the bay shoreline is shifting," Goldzband said.

Shifting shorelines could cause big problems for Bay Area residents, particularly those along the water’s edge.

"It’s quite concerning, especially here in Alviso. In the past, there have been floods here," Bay Area resident Timothy Lo told KTVU. Lo has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life, and he often thinks about the impacts of rising sea levels.

"Rising sea level is what we call a slow-moving emergency. But the good thing about a slow-moving emergency, is that because king tides are an early warning system, we can work with public officials and cities and counties and communities to help them get prepared," Goldzband told KTVU.

Those preparations include redesigning coastal architecture to survive higher sea levels or expanding marshlands with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.

"Moving huge amounts of dirt in order to create levee, and in order to create, essentially a recreated marsh area, which will help protect this part of the South Bay for a while," Goldzband said.

The California King Tides Project is collecting photos through this weekend. So if you snap the high tides, be sure to share those photos with the project to help track those water levels.

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