Beaufort County’s high tides will get especially high. Blame it on the moon

The tides promise to come in higher than normal through the weekend thanks to a new moon at its closest approach to the earth, or perigee.

This evening’s tide is forecast to come in just below flood stage, and the high tides on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are anticipated to be similarly high if not a tad higher. The higher tides are expected to have minor impacts throughout the region, if any.

“We’ve gotten reports in the past of a little water moving up into parking lots and sometimes it will approach the bottom of decks or piers,” said Carl Barnes, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. “If there is water across a roadway certainly you shouldn’t drive through it. A lot of times people just need a heads up that there will be higher than normal high tides.”

People venturing into the water need to be mindful of rip currents over the next few days as well.

“When we these really high high tides we typically also have really low low tides,” said Barnes. “What that means is that the difference between high tide and low tide is higher than normal, but the time between high tide and low tide is no different than normal. The result of that is that the water is moving in and out faster than it normally does and creating a stronger current.”

Tonight’s high tide in Beaufort will occur around 8:30 p.m., while it will hit the beach side of Hilton Head closer to 7:30.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Beaufort County’s high tides will get especially high. Blame it on the moon."