King Tides Are Coming to the Coast of Maine At the End of May

It looks like Maine and other parts of New England will be seeing some super-high tides, the highest of the year, coming to our coasts and some rivers soon.

The Town of Hampden made mention of "super tides" coming up from May 24 to the 26 on their Facebook on Monday, with tides reaching nearly 17 feet.

Looking at the tide forecast, Wednesday, May 26, at midnight and Thursday, May 27, closer to 1 a.m. are looking to be hitting the peak of these super tides.

Additionally, NOAA.org is predicting that the Northeast will see the highest tides of the year coming up at the end of May this year. They even pointed out that places in New England that will have the greatest chance of seeing this high tides include Portland and Bar Harbor in Maine, as well as Boston, Providence and King's Point.

We are seeing these tides, also known more scientifically and specifically as the Perigean-Spring Tide, as a result of higher water levels due to season and the position of the moon, the sun and the earth. We are also about to have a full moon on Wednesday, May 26. Combining these different things occurring all at the same time makes for higher tides and the highest ones we will see this year, as well.

Generally, a full moon or new moon will result in a larger tide, but due to the position of where the moon is and how the sun pulls the moon during it's orbit around earth, the tides we will see coming soon will be significantly larger because of the positioning of all of these heavenly bodies, their positions and their pulls of gravity.

With these highest of the high tides for the year, there could be flooding at coastal areas.

For more about this cool science-y thing, go to the experts and visit noaa.org to read more about the Perigean-Spring Tide.