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Hawaii and Pacific Islands King Tides Project

Published by Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2018-12-14T00:00:00.000+00:00
The University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program's Hawaii and Pacific Islands King Tides Project documents high water level events known as King Tides to better understand future impacts from sea level rise and other coastal hazards. King Tides provide a window into the future because today's high tides are predicted to become tomorrow's average sea levels. Citizen scientists have contributed to this free, publicly-accessible, and crowd-sourced dataset by photographing King Tides at places important to them throughout Hawaii and Oceania. Photos, observations, date, time, location, and other metadata are submitted online. This publicly-accessible online database informs research, policy, and decision making across the State of Hawaii and the wider Pacific region. King tides are the highest astronomical tides of the year. The scientific term for a King Tide is a perigean spring tide. King Tides in the Hawaiian Islands tend to occur during the summer (e.g., July and August) and winter months (e.g., December and January) in conjunction with new moons and full moons. King Tides, or the highest high tides of the year, are a unique coastal hazard. The timing of these extreme water level events can be anticipated through the use of tidal predictions, yet their impacts (e.g., coastal flooding and inundation in low-lying areas) can have devastating consequences for coastal inhabitants, particularly when combined with severe weather or high wave events. It is a common misconception that King Tides are the result of man-made climate change. When in reality, they are not byproducts of climate change, rather they are windows for us to see what the future of sea level rise from global climate change might look like along our coastlines. With future sea level rise we can expect more frequent high tide flooding and monthly and even daily high tides exceeding coastal inundation thresholds. When sharing these photographs, please cite this project with the following attribution: (c) Hawaii Sea Grant King Tides Project, (year of photo). Some rights reserved. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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Earth Science > Climate Indicators > Atmospheric/Ocean Indicators > Sea Level Rise > Erosion Earth Science > Climate Indicators > Atmospheric/Ocean Indicators > Sea Level Rise > Inundation Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Environmental Impacts Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Natural Hazards > Floods Earth Science > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Beaches Earth Science > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Erosion Earth Science > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Sea Level Rise Earth Science > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Shoreline Displacement Earth Science > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Shorelines Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Waves > Wave Runup Earth Science > Solid Earth > Gemorphic Landforms/Processes > Coastal Landforms > Shorelines Earth Science > Solid Earth > Geomorphic Landforms/Processes > Coastal Landforms > Beaches Continent > North America > United States Of America > Hawaii Geographic Region > Oceania Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Hawaiian Islands Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Hawaiian Islands > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Ocean > Pacific Ocean > South Pacific Ocean > Polynesia > American Samoa Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Micronesia > Federated States of Micronesia > FSM Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Micronesia > Guam Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Micronesia > Marshall Islands > Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Micronesia > Northern Mariana Islands > Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Ocean > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Micronesia > Palau PacIOOS > Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System PacIOOS > Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System

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