Extreme High Tides Expected Along RI Coast; Grab Your Camera

Trick-or-treaters and Halloween shenanigans aren't the only things you'll need to brace yourself for this week. According to forecasters, some of the highest tides of the year will happen this week from Block Island to East Greenwich.

According to members of the Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island/Rhode Island Sea Grant, these unusually high tides offer a glimpse at what water levels may be in the future due to sea level rise.

"We're going to have some of the highest high tides of the year this week and they're luckily at a time when it's daylight," said Janet Freedman of the state Coastal Management Resources Council.

Mean high tide at the Newport tide gauge is typically 3.6 feet. This week, high tides are predicted at 5.1 or 5.2 feet as the sun, moon and Earth will align — compounding the level of high tides.

In East Greenwich, the high tide Wednesday morning will be 5.64 feet at 7:56 a.m. Thursday morning will bring an even higher tide: 5.76 feet at 8:44 a.m. At 9:46 a.m. on Friday, the high tide wll be 5.68 feet.

"It's going to allow us to visualize what the future is probably going to hold for us," said Freedman.

High tide levels have been on the rise for the past two decades, Freeman said. Formerly, sea level rose an average of 25 cm every 100 years. Now, it's nearly 36 cm for every 100 years. Freedman adds that high tides for the past two months have been quite extreme.

"Last month we got a call from residents saying they had fish in their lawn from the high tide," said Freedman.

The Rhode Island Sea Grant is asking Rhode Islanders to grab the cameras and snap photos of this unusual high tide to be used for research. The compilation of photos will be used to aid the RISG, Save the Bay and Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council to study the impact of sea level rise on communities, studying the effects on property, infrastructure and wetlands.

When taking your pictures, remember to record your location (street and town), time and date, description of what you are seeing — such as the length of road flooded, percentage of parking lot inundated, and any other details, including if you see fish in your backyard — and contact information to get credit for the picture.

If you already have a Flickr account, you can upload your photographs to the Flickr group “Rhode Island High Tide Photos” at http://www.flickr.com/groups/rihightide/. If you do not have a Flickr account, send pictures by e-mail to action51week@photos.flickr.com or simply add them to this article and Patch will forward them along.