The highest predicted waters at Digby, through 2028. Every high tide reaching 7.0 m above Chart Datum.
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 m or more above Chart Datum, 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 Digby
On a shore that already sees forty feet, the highest tides of the year are a considerable event. Water comes over the dykes in the Annapolis Valley and up the marsh roads around Minas Basin, and the Acadian dykelands — built three centuries ago to hold exactly this out — are tested.
A king tide with an onshore gale behind it is what overtops them. The figures here are astronomical only; a storm adds to them.