The highest predicted waters at Sargent Beach, through 2030. Every high tide reaching 7.00 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 Sargent Beach
The highest tides of the year push water over the Bolivar Peninsula roads and into the back bays, and on Galveston's West End the water reaches the dunes. Nothing dramatic happens without weather behind it, but a king tide is what a storm surge is added to.
Late autumn is when they fall, which is also when the first northers arrive. The combination is what floods rather than either alone.