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Flooding isn’t limited to heavy rains. High tide flooding, sometimes referred to as sunny day or nuisance flooding, is a rising problem for coastal communities. Learn how climate change is expected to make the problem worse and how communities are preparing.
Flooding. It’s often associated with heavy rains and severe storms. But with rising sea levels, flooding in some coastal communities is now occurring during high tides and sunny days. It’s called high tide flooding and it causes road closures, overwhelmed storm drains and damage to sidewalks and roads.
When coastal storms coincide with high tides, the flooding can worsen dramatically. Since 1990, high tide flooding has nearly tripled along U.S. coastlines due to sea level rise caused by climate change and sinking land. The land can move due to underlying geology or human impacts. Sea level rise is expected to further increase the frequency and severity of high tide flooding.
So what are people doing about it? Communities are installing costly water pumps to clear the streets of floodwaters. Some people are building on stilts or moving to higher ground.
We can’t push down the rising seas. But we can plan for the future, and adapt to the new normal.
