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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Neil Shaw

NASA warns that moon wobble and rising sea will mean more floods

NASA experts have warned coastal locations to expect more flooding by the mid-2030s because of the wobble of the moon and rising sea levels.

The moon has a changing impact on tides around the Earth, meaning floods can be more or less likely based on its position in the sky,

The moon 'wobbles' around the Earth in a cycle that lasts 18.6 years.

NASA explained: “In half of the Moon’s 18.6-year cycle, Earth’s regular daily tides are suppressed: High tides are lower than normal, and low tides are higher than normal.

“In the other half of the cycle, tides are amplified: High tides get higher, and low tides get lower."

NASA has warned that by the next 'amplified' cycle of the moon's wobble, in the mid-2030s - sea levels will have risen so much that at high tide some places could see flooding every few days - with flood seasons lasting a month or longer.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get worse.

“The combination of the Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world."

Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and the lead author of a new study, published in Nature Climate Change, said: “If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can’t keep operating with its parking lot under water.

"People lose their jobs because they can’t get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue.”

NASA warned: “The higher seas, amplified by the lunar cycle, will cause a leap in flood numbers on almost all US mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam,” but tides are very much a global phenomenon, and coast parts of the UK, such as Cornwall, Kent, Sussex and the East Coast are equally at risk.

Globally, average sea levels have risen by up to 24cm since 1880 - with a third of that happening in the last 25 years.

Seas are currently rising by 6mm a year and the rate of rise is accelerating as higher global temperatures melt the ice caps.

For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.

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