The Departure Bay beach looked a little more bare than usual on Dec. 29, as the king tide carried away a lot of the logs and debris which normally strewn the sandy shores. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

high tide

Mid-Island beaches feeling effects of king tide

Dec 31, 2022 | 6:01 AM

NANAIMO — Beachgoers noticed the accumulation of logs at Departure Bay beach was less than usual this week but was the king tide the culprit?

King tides are something everyone living near an ocean has to deal with a few times a year when the alignment of the sun and moon cause the tides to be exceptionally higher.

Meteorologist with Environment Canada Alyssa Charbonneau said king tides usually occur a few times a year, generally between November and February for the mid-Island.

“We had a storm surge as well, which added to that. The storm surge is separate from king tides, it’s a rise in water that happens generated by storms, and this one was generated by a storm off the coast. Those two factors together gave us some pretty high water levels on the 27 (of Dec.). “

Charbonneau said the tides are expected to diminish over the next few days, and shouldn’t be as high as what was seen on Tuesday.

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Southeastern winds and storm surges are also factors in increasing the size of waves.

Pipers Lagoon still had plenty of logs on their ocean facing shores on Dec. 29. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

“Even without that storm surge, we are experiencing a period of time when the tides are higher than normal. Localized low-elevation flooding, especially for those places near the water where you see the logs kind of being lifted on beaches, and the water walkways see some of that water come up can happen.”

While rainfall doesn’t have much of an effect on the tides, it can cause concerns for localized flooding in low-lying areas.

“The BC River Forcast Centre over the weekend had issues, including flood watches for parts of Vancouver Island that was for rivers basically, which is where we would see that impact from the rainfall and the snow melt that was happening over the island over the weekend. A lot of that coincided with the period of higher tides, so any place where those rivers were meeting the higher tides could absolutely cause some issues.”

She said if you do decide to venture down to the waterfront during these higher-than-normal tides, use caution and make sure you don’t get caught with your feet wet.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow