April 16, 2014 will be noteworthy to
Annapolis sailors for years to come, and it was certainly not a high
water mark.
 |
| Extreme low tide |
Tides at Annapolis are always pretty
minimal, fluctuating about a foot or so from high to low tide. Full
moon tides go bigger but the range is still only about 18 inches.
For the tidal range to stretch a full 3 feet 9 inches from high tide
on the 15th to low tide on the 16th created a
low tide event that even long time Annapolitans said they'd never
seen before.
 |
| Normal water level the next day |
When I left the boat on the morning of
the 16th, I commented on the low water as it seemed below
normal. My dockmate then shocked me when he pointed out that we were
experiencing High Tide! The water level in Back Creek was over a
foot lower than a normal low tide and was now headed even lower as
the normal tide action would drain even more water from the
Chesapeake. By a quarter past 4pm, this lowest of the lows went to
its minimum height, over 2 feet below the predicted low tide, a foot
and 8 inches below chart datum and 3 feet 9 inches below the high
tide only 30 hours earlier.
 |
| None of the sand or rocks seen here are ever visible, even at low tide, normally. By S.A.Strickland |
The cause of this extremely low water
was the very strong and consistent northwest breeze that blew a full
gale for two days, pushing the huge volume of water out of the
Chesapeake. Although the breeze began to lessen on the afternoon of
the 16th, it wasn't enough to counter the falling tide as
the water created its record low tide.
No comments:
Post a Comment