Seasonal high tides flood city
Residents of Belize City, particularly during the rainy season, are no strangers to getting their feet wet. But while most of the old capital’s flooding is the result of heavy rainfall, the water which greeted citizens as they woke this morning came up from the ground and not the sky. Like many Belizeans, we tried to find out what was going on.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
This morning all aircraft remained grounded at the Belize City Municipal Airstrip. According to Efrain Gomez, the Chief Civil Aviation Officer, they closed the airstrip after the western end of the runway was flooded.
Efrain Gomez, Chief Civil Aviation Officer
“We’ve closed it before after a storm, after the passing of a tropical storm or a hurricane, we’ve had flood and debris on the runway and we had to close it.”
The airstrip remained closed for four hours, but once the water subsided the runway was cleaned and opened. The flood was caused by high tides that also affected many other low lying areas of the city. According to Chief Meteorologist, Carlos Fuller, the unusually high tides are the result of a gravitational attraction that is taking place between the earth, sun and moon.
Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
“We are heading towards a new moon, that is when moon is between the sun and the earth. As a result, the gravitational attraction between the earth and the moon and the sun combine together to form the highest tides. In fact, this is going to occur on Sunday, so we should continue to see high tides from now until Sunday.”
Fuller says the high tides occur twice a year as the result of the alignment of earth, sun and moon. Because the city is near sea level, the effect of the high tides is increased.
Carlos Fuller
“The effects are magnified in Belize City because we are so low to sea level; either at sea level or below sea level. So for example, if the water rises by one foot and it is very flat, you will see this effect of one foot go a thousand feet inland, because the water will go inland until it finds an elevation of one foot. So a rise of one or two inches is quite spectacular because that one inch spreads over a large area. Whereas, if you had very hilly terrain, a one inch rise is insignificant because it does not spread very far.”
Saturday’s high tide will occur around 9:00 in the morning and Sunday an hour later. The water should recede by Monday, but in two weeks the full moon will once again make for wet footing. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
As the weather forecast indicated, those weekend tides will likely be amplified by periods of heavy rain.
