Today's 'once-in-a-lifetime' coastal flooding likely to become daily events by 2050

By 2100, today’s 50-year record tides will occur in 93% of U.S. coastal cities every day, according to an analysis by researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Hawaii and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The researchers examined historical data from tidal gauges in more than 200 locations on the East Coast, West Coast and Hawaii. They used their study of the increasing sea levels and their effects on tidal fluctuations to crerate their projections.

"Sea-level rise will likely cause ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ coastal flooding events to occur nearly every day before 2100," the researchers wrote in their analysis.

Oceans could swell by up to 3 feet by 2100, according to current estimates by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. That would dramatically reshape coastlines. This latest analysis predicts coastal areas could become flooded just as severely – or worse – on a yearly basis decades beforehand. That would force hundreds of thousands of Americans to decide if living on coastal property is worth yearly property damage and flooding.

"Our society has yet to fully comprehend the imminence of the projected regime shifts in coastal hazards and the consequences thereof," the researchers said in their analysis.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that a record number of high tide-related flooding events were being experienced by U.S. cities. A rainstorm or unusually high tide can flood roads, overwhelm storm drains and damage infrastructure in places like Miami, Charleston, South Carolina, and Galveston, Texas.