Weather event - January 4-5 2018

Main points as at Saturday 6th January at 2:30pm

This is the last update from Waikato Regional Council on this event.

Please contact your relevant District Council for information on recovery efforts.

If your land or property was damaged by the flood event, EQC (Earthquake Commission) may provide some cover alongside your private insurance.  Find out more, here.(external link)

A final summary is below:
Water levels in the southern Firth of Thames over the high tide on Friday (5th January) morning have reached levels not seen for quite some time. As such, there have been a number of affected communities, please contact your local council’s Civil Defence, if you require assistance. There are also a number of road closures, please contact NZTA for latest information (see ‘Who should I contact?').

As the effects of the storm are moving out of the Waikato Region and high tide levels will be reducing, subsequent high tides are unlikely to reach the peak of Friday morning. Coastal water levels will be driven primarily by tidal effects with much less impact from winds and atmospheric pressure.

Tide levels will return to ‘normal’ from Monday 8th January as will move out of the ‘King tide’ cycle. Please refer to the ‘King tide’ information and NIWA Red Alert Tide Calendar for future ‘King Tide’ events (below the advisory/sitrep table on this page).

What is a ‘King Tide’?

High perigean-spring tides, colloquially known as "king tides", peak 1–2 days after New or Full Moon when Moon is in its perigee (i.e. when it is closest to the Earth during its 27½ day elliptical circuit around the Earth), but dates of highest tides vary around New Zealand.

While not yet available on the NIWA website, below are Red Alert Tide (‘King Tides’) Calendars for 2018 that cover the Coromandel East coast and Coromandel West Coast/Firth of Thames. 

Red-alert tide - Coromandel East Coast [PDF, 227 KB]
Red-alert tide - Firth of Thames/Coromandel West Coast [PDF, 230 KB]

Note that:

• Tides in Firth of Thames on the 5^th and 4^th were the highest and second highest predicted for 2018.  The third highest predicted tide for 2018 in the Firth of Thames is on 3^rd of February at 10:14hrs.
• Tides on the East Coast of the Coromandel on the 5^th and 4^th were the highest and second highest predicted for 2018. The third highest predicted tide for 2018 in the Firth of Thames is on 15^th July at 20:42hrs.

Thank you Rob Bell of NIWA for providing this information.

More information on tides can be found here:

For official tide predictions at NZ Standard Ports, see the Land Information NZ (LINZ) web site https://www.linz.govt.nz/sea/tides/tide-predictions(external link)

NIWA Tide Forecaster https://www.niwa.co.nz/services/online-services/tide-forecaster(external link)

NIWA Sea levels https://www.niwa.co.nz/our-services/online-services/sea-levels(external link)

>> Here are some pics of the event, on our Facebook page.(external link)