King tides return to SLO County this weekend — and you can get a look ‘into the future’
Cal Poly students and faculty will host two king tide events on Saturday — and they’ll offer the public a glimpse “into the future.”
The king tides, which form when the gravitational forces of the Earth, sun and moon align to reinforce each other, are set to return to San Luis Obispo County this weekend.
While king tides are natural and predictable, they also offer a look forward to what higher sea levels caused by climate change might look like, Cal Poly experts say.
“By observing and documenting king tides, we’re essentially looking into the future,” Serena Lee, a researcher in Cal Poly’s civil and environmental engineering department, said in a news release. “It’s a powerful visual that helps us understand what higher sea levels might mean for our local communities and environment.”
The events will also give community members a chance to participate in climate research of their own by capturing and submitting photos to the California King Tide Project, a citizen science initiative that documents the tides.
“Even simple images of water on the coastline can provide us with so much information,” Lee said. “It’s an easy entry point into the issue and helps people who may not think about climate change understand its real-world impact.”
The Cal Poly events, hosted in partnership with California State Parks and the Central Coast Aquarium, will allow members of the public to observe the tides and learn about the impacts of climate change.
The events will take place on Saturday in Morro Bay at the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., and in Avila Beach at Avila Beach Park from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 11:40 AM.
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