The Earth's orbit about the Sun is closer to the sun than in many, many
years.   I want to say 22.
There are 11 and 22 year cycles.

When I lived just off the equator in mid pacific (south pacific
officially) the tides total swing
from High High to Low Low was + 6 to -6.   When it was at +6 we had to
watch out for storm
surges - they would stack up on top and overflow the island or cause
real problems.

The -6 was great for shelling - allowed longer time out and in areas not
been in for a while!

Martin

On 2/19/2013 2:14 PM, Steve Rosenthal wrote:
> I had to stay home today so took advantage of the first semi-warm day in
> awhile to head to my local shelling spot (bayside of Jones Beach State Park
> by the fishing piers). That was despite  the tide tables saying  it would
> only be a not very helpful +0.6 low tide.
>
> Tides for Jones Inlet (Point Lookout) starting with February 19, 2013.
> Tu    19     High   1:59 AM     3.2
>         19   Low   8:47 AM     0.6
>
> I know that winds/currents/weather etc can influence the tide level
> substantially in either direction (eg, I've seen quite a few low
> tides "cancelled" due to inclement weather), but nothing like i saw this
> morning.  Maybe the moderate WSW winds -about 20mph according to weather
> channel-  were the culprit, but the tide was the lowest i think I have ever
> seen at this spot, or at least definitely as low or  lower than the
> occasional  -1.0  or more low tides we get in the winter months. There was
> more shell-bearing grit and grunge too than i had ever seen as well:  up
> here, when you see grit with lots of  the sand-grain worm tubes you have a
> chance at good drift and micro material,  and the collecting was ok for mid-
> February. lots of small bivalves. And the usual big ones...and a live
> beached sea cucumber, which was a first for here.  I certainly do wonder
> what was going on to lower the tide so much.
>
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