King Tides Begin to Subside From Area

MIAMI — The predicted astronomical peak of the so-called king tides arrived in the local area on Wednesday morning but the National Weather Service reports the tides weren’t nearly as big as anticipated.

“It looks like for this event the tides peaked on Sunday” meteorologist Robert Molleda with the National Weather Service in Miami told Patch. “Sunday and Monday were the two highest and then since then the tides have been falling and they should continue to decrease gradually over the next several days.”

South Florida has been experiencing so-called king tides this week due in large part to the presence of the December supermoon.

King tide is not a scientific term, nor does there appear to be a consensus as to whether it’s singular or plural. Rather, it's a colloquial way of referring to the highest tides of the season.

Fortunately, the actual tides peaked at 3.2 feet on Sunday at Virginia Key while they barely made it to 3 feet on Wednesday. Meteorologists had predicted the highest tides to be on Wednesday based on astronomical data.

“That’s likely a result of the east winds, the onshore winds that we had over the weekend, which initially pushed the tides up a little bit,” according to Molleda. “Those east winds relaxed in the last couple of days so I think that was probably one of the primary reasons that the water levels or the tide levels came down slightly.”

By contrast, the highest tide in November was measured at 3.8 feet.

Image courtesy of the National Weather Service.