So what is a all the tide talk about? The King Tide is a common — non-scientific — way to refer to the biggest tides of the year. This means that during a king tide, we'll see the highest high tide and the lowest low tide of the year.

What causes a king tide? This very cool phenomenon occurs when the sun and moon are both at their closest to Earth — pulling on the ocean with their strongest gravitational force. A king tide’s scientific name is perigean spring tide, perigean meaning that the moon is closest to the earth, and spring referring to a full or new moon. I never knew! I love that after 60 years on the planet, I'm still learning.