High-tide floods, also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods, occur not because of storm surges from extreme weather or excessive precipitation, but instead when the tide rises into populated areas. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue.Coastal communities, from the Jersey Shore to Miami to Southern California, are likely to see a dramatic surge in high-tide floods starting in the mid 2030s as rising sea levels due to climate change align with natural shifts in the moon's orbit, a new NASA study warns. People lose their jobs because they can’t get to work. “If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can’t keep operating with its parking lot under water. “It’s the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact,” said lead author Phil Thompson. While high tide floods don’t involve as large an amount of water as hurricanes, the real danger lies in their frequency. Researchers are hoping their findings will lead to more dedicated efforts to prevent as much damage as possible, both to the environment and people’s livelihoods, before it’s too late. Sea-level rise is already expected to make hundreds of thousands of square miles of coastline uninhabitable and potentially displace over 100 million people worldwide by the end of the century.

mainland coastlines, Hawaii and Guam are expected to face these effects. “The combination of the Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world.”Īlmost all U.S. “Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get worse,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. During certain alignments, floods could happen as frequently as every day or every other day. Scientists expect three to four times that amount in the mid-2030s, after sea-level rise has another decade to progress.Īccording to the study, these floods will exceed flooding thresholds around the country more often, and can also occur in clusters lasting more than a month, depending on the positions of the moon, Earth and sun.

In 2019, NOAA reported more than 600 such floods. With sea-level rise due to climate change, the next high tide floods are expected to be more intense and more frequent than ever before, exacerbating already grim predictions. So half of the 18.6-year lunar cycle counteracts the effect of sea-level rise on high tides, and the other half increases the effect.”īut this time around, scientists are more concerned. Global sea-level rise pushes high tides in only one direction – higher. “In the other half of the cycle, tides are amplified: High tides get higher, and low tides get lower. “In half of the Moon’s 18.6-year cycle, Earth’s regular daily tides are suppressed: High tides are lower than normal, and low tides are higher than normal,” NASA explains. The moon’s orbit is responsible for periods of both higher and lower tides about every 18.6 years, and they aren’t dangerous in their own right. While the study highlights the dire situation facing coastal cities, the lunar wobble is actually a natural occurrence, first reported in 1728.

Nasa moon wobble flooding