Save the date for the upcoming King Tides!
December 4th & 5th, 2025
and January 2nd & 3rd, 2026
Plus: Nov. 6th and Dec. 6th in Southern CA,
and some Northern CA locations
Hello King Tides Community, we need your help to photograph the King Tides. The next dates for the California King Tides Project will be statewide on December 4 & 5, 2025 and January 2 & 3, 2026. In southern California and some northern California locations, very high predicted tides will also take place on November 6 and December 6, 2025.
Please find your local King Tide times here, and mark those dates on your calendar so you can start thinking about where and when you'll take your #KingTides photographs. Your participation makes the Project possible and we appreciate you!
Your photos help us understand what's vulnerable to flooding today, plan for future sea level rise, and get us all talking and thinking about the impacts of the climate crisis and what we can do to make a difference. You can browse King Tide photos on our photo mapand on the California King Tides Project website.
If you represent a community group or local government that would like to host a king tides event, please let us know at kingtides@coastal.ca.gov.
What causes sea level rise, and what do King Tides have to do with it?
The sea level rise we're experiencing now and will experience in the future is caused by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping in heat that would otherwise escape. When we burn fossil fuels, we're adding more carbon dioxide, "thickening the blanket" and heating the earth, air, and ocean. Sea level is rising because land-based glaciers and ice sheets are melting into the ocean, and because water takes up more space when it warms. The amount of sea level rise we will ultimately experience depends on how quickly we stop burning fossil fuels.
King Tides themselves are not caused by sea level rise, but allow us to experience a little of what higher sea level will be like. King Tides are the highest predicted tides caused by the gravitational pull between the Earth, Moon, and Sun. They're about a foot or two higher than average high tides, which gives us a preview of the sea level that's expected within the next few decades. When you observe the King Tides, picture the water level that high and higher every day. Documenting what King Tides look like today will help us responsibly plan for sea level rise in the future, and gets us thinking and talking about what we can do today.