Coastal mainland and cities are under threat from \u2018rapidly increasing high tide floods\u2019 which could occur in clusters lasting a month or more say scientists.<\/p>\n
A new study on high tide flooding predicts that the mid-2030s could be disastrous in the U.S. coastal regions \u2014 and it could remain that way for an entire decade.<\/p>\n
Led by members of the NASA Sea Level Change Team from the University of Hawaii, the study says that high tide flooding could happen more frequently on several U.S. coasts. Flooding at high tide, often called nuisance flooding, already happening with regularity in many coastal areas as water routinely overflows into streets, yards and businesses.<\/p>\n
Two factors could occur to trigger terrible flooding at high tide, the study says: rising sea levels fueled by climate change \u2014 and the moon.<\/p>\n
The moon is about to “wobble” means that the moon’s orbit is due for its regular “wobble which is its natural phenomenon NASA reports, and it has been recorded as far back as 1728. Half of the moon’s 18.6-year cycle creates lower high tides and higher low tides; the other creates higher high tides and even lower low tides.<\/p>\n
But NASA states that global sea level rise will likely push those high tides higher, and one of the study’s co-authors, NASA Sea Level Change Team leader Ben Hamlington, said that because waters will be higher, this moon cycle could have a much more dramatic effect.<\/p>\n
“We’re getting closer and closer to the flooding thresholds or tipping point in these coastal locations,” he said. “The same variability in the past that didn’t cause flooding is now going to cause flooding.”<\/p>\n
High tides already going beyond known flooding thresholds around the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported continued record-setting high tide, or sunny day, flooding in 2019. But the study shows that high tides will heighten with flooding thresholds more often. Floods, the study predicts, could also start occurring in “clusters” that last a month or longer, depending on how the sun, moon and Earth are positioned, according to NASA.<\/p>\n
“Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get worse,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “The combination of the moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world.”<\/p>\n
Whe coastal cities have already started to act, massive dramatic flooding is coming faster than\u00a0anticipated.<\/p>\n
A lot of global changes such rising sea levels triggered by climate change \u2014 and the moon wobble and scientists say, “We’re going to see these big dramatic shifts in the next decade or two.”<\/p>\n