but I would like to come see this high tide.  How unusual is the 17 foot tide? highest of the year, but when was the last 17 plus? How many since the 1977 flooding tide?  

Thanks for posting this.  The incremental changes in our environment are like the slowly rising water temperature for cooking frogs.  Tipping points are easy to spot, slow incremental changes are more difficult to see.  

Right On! I'll try to make it down with my posse-

I am constantly amazed by how many folks think ecological change in response to human activity is a fad or cult!?

I know that I will be rowing across town from the Eastside shoreline to the Westside shoreline in Olympia (floating across what used to be downtown), before I leave this Earth...and I'm not even a Waterworld fan! >grin<

Here's an interactive map we've posted here before. A button in the uper left corner you allows you model different increases in sea level. The default is 7 meters for some reason. Perhaps we can clear up some questions I have.

1. People keep mentioning a 3 foot rise in sea level in the south sound. But I remember seeing something more modest, like a foot and a half. What say you all?

2. Assuming that the map I linked to models the sea level at an average tide, high tide events like this Christmans would be a big problem for down town. Is that how you interpret this model?  Or do the water levels shown represent levels at average high tides? Not sure what the conventions are for this stuff.