The Tides

One of the things I've found most mystifying about the Bay since we've moved here is the tide changes. I've read all I could find about Chesapeake tides, but I'm having a very difficult time making sense of it all. What I'm finding difficult to understand is that the predictions I've found in the tide charts don't seem to match the water levels I see out my windows. This week, we've had the highest water levels I've seen since we moved in. In fact, Friday the water was so high it was in our driveway even covering the road in front of our house. I shot a few pictures for reference including the one above which shows the back of my truck and our driveway, and this one showing the water over Forest Drive. An inch or two more, and we would easily have had the Chesapeake Bay in our back yard.

It's rained all day today, and the water is very high again tonight. Since we're near the mouth of the Magothy river, I'm wondering if rain might have some impact on our water levels here. On the other hand, I can very well see the main channel of the Chesapeake Bay, so shouldn't we always be at Sea Level? Stay tuned, I'll let you know if I figure it out. I'm hoping that, when the weather gets warmer I'll get to meet more of our neighbors and quiz them about what they know.

One more thing. A couple weeks ago I posted pictures of very low tides. I read an article yesterday in a local sailing newspaper that said those were the lowest in several years. In fact, there was some damage to racing sailboats in Annapolis due to being left high and dry and buffeted by the gail force winds. -S