The highest predicted waters at Anna Maria Island, through 2030. Every high tide reaching 7.0 ft above MLLW.
What counts as a king tide
There is no official definition. NOAA does not publish one, and the
California King Tides Project simply means the highest predicted tides of
the year. This page lists every predicted high water of
7.0 ft or more above MLLW, which on this stretch of coast picks out
the handful of days each winter when the water comes up unusually far.
They happen when the moon is closest to Earth and new or full at the same
time, with the Earth near its own closest approach to the sun. That
alignment stacks the solar and lunar pulls together, and it lands in
November, December and January far more often than not.
These are predictions of astronomical tide only. A winter storm arriving on
a king tide is what causes flooding, because surge and wind can add a foot
or more on top of the figures here.
What a king tide means at Anna Maria Island
The autumn king tides bring water over the low-lying roads on Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach and Marco, and into the mangrove backwaters behind them. This is the same seasonal high water that floods Miami on the other coast, seen from the Gulf side.
The range here is small, so it takes very little extra — a persistent westerly, a low offshore — to turn a high tide into water in the street.