Study: Moon ‘wobble’ could worsen flooding in 2030s

A new study by NASA scientists suggests that coastal communities like Belvedere and Tiburon are about to get a lot wetter because of the moon. In a paper published in July in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists from NASA’s Sea Level Change Science Team at the University of Hawaii predict that lunar influences along with sea-level rise will greatly increase the number of high-tide flooding days in most coastal communities.

According to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, between May 2020 and April 2021, coastal communities saw twice as many high-tide flooding days as they did 20 years ago. The agency projected the number of high-tide flooding days in the Bay Area would increase from the current one to five days per year to 15-20 days annually by 2050. But that figure does not take into account the latest data on the effects of the lunar “wobble,” a naturally occurring shift in the lunar orbit that will bring higher high tides and lower low tides starting in the 2030s.

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