 East Kent Coast Sea Fishing Compendium |
Proxigean and Perigean |
A proxigean spring tide is a rare, extreme form of spring tide which occurs once every 1.2 to 1.5 years or so when the moon is new (between the earth and sun) and at its proxigee, being the point of the moon's elliptical orbit that is closest to the earth and 92.7% of its average distance. This produces a 25% increase in the tide.
A perigean spring tide is a tide that occurs three or four times a year when the Moon's perigee (its closest point to Earth during its 28-day elliptical orbit) coincides with a spring tide (when the Earth, Sun and Moon are nearly aligned every two weeks). This tide usually adds only a couple of inches to normal spring tides.
Forthcoming dates of Proxigean spring tides:
| 30 August 2019 | New |
| 16 October 2020 | New |
| 4 December 2021 | New |
| 21 January 2023 | New |