King tides at Yachats

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 Yachats

These are the days the Oregon King Tides Project asks people to photograph. The highest waters of the year come over the seawalls at Yachats and into the low ground at Waldport and Newport's bayfront.

At Depoe Bay and Cape Perpetua a king tide with a winter swell is what puts the spouting horns at their most dramatic — and what occasionally puts water across Highway 101.