THE TELEGRAPH – By Nick Allen WASHINGTON 14 July 2021 • 7:33pm
Coastal cities under threat from ‘rapidly increasing high tide floods’ which could occur in clusters lasting a month or more, say scientists
The world faces an onslaught of coastal flooding starting in the mid-2030s due to a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit, Nasa has warned.
Numbers of floods could quadruple as the gravitational effects of the lunar cycle combine with climate change to produce “a decade of dramatic increases” in water disasters.
The space agency said coastal cities would experience “rapidly increasing high-tide floods” and they would occur in “clusters” lasting a month or longer.
It said the main cause was a “regular wobble” in the moon’s orbit, which was first recorded in 1728.
Nasa said: “What’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the moon’s gravitational pull – the main cause of Earth’s tides – will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming.”
The wobble in the moon’s orbit takes 18.6 years to complete.
For half of that time, regular daily tides on Earth are suppressed, meaning high tides are lower than normal, and low tides are higher than normal.
During the other half of the cycle tides are amplified, meaning high tides get even higher, and low tides get even lower. As global sea levels rise, the amplification effect will be increased.
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