Sea Level Rise
I
Story and photographs by Jack Kotz
t is a beautiful day on Kiawah Island, and you decide to go into
Charleston for dinner at one of Charleston’s finest. But as you turn off of
Lockwood Drive onto Beaufain Street, you realize the street is flooded.
In fact, many streets are flooded. It is “sunny day flooding” or “nuisance
flooding.”
Sunny day flooding or nuisance flooding is a temporary flooding of low-
lying areas, and it often occurs during new or full moons. During those times
the monthly orbit of the moon aligns with the sun and the earth. The combined
gravitational pull of the sun and moon during those times exerts a greater force
on the earth’s oceans, and the tides are higher than normal. These are sometimes
referred to as spring tides. Several times a year, when the new or full moon is
closest to the earth (at its perigee), the force is even greater, and a larger “king tide”
or a “perigean spring tide” results.
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