Newport Daily News — New England's high tides are getting higher. How 'sunny day' flooding could impact you.
High tide breaches Duck Harbor Beach, Wellfleet. Eric Williams, Cape Cod Times
Aug 5, 2022
By Hadley Barndollar — Last October, when seawater encroached on power lines at a substation in Warren, Rhode Island, the skies were blue.
There wasn't a nor'easter. No hurricane sending its wrath north. It was a typical autumn day — with a king tide.
New Englanders often associate flooding with storms, and rightfully so. But imagine sunny days with impassable roads, bubbling storm drains and basements-turned-swimming pools? Those scenarios will become much more common, like during a full moon or change in prevailing winds or currents, according to a report released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
High tides are getting higher because of sea level rise, especially in the Northeast where the ocean is rising three-to-four times faster than the global average. High tide flooding, or "sunny day" flooding, is when low-lying areas are covered anywhere from 1.75 to 2 feet above the daily average high tide.
On Wednesday, NOAA released its annual state of high tide flooding report and outlook through April 2023, showing places like Boston, Providence and Bar Harbor could experience up to 70 days of high tide flooding by the year 2050.
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