I recently moved into a new apartment in Rahway, NJ and my balcony faces the Rahway River:
From our POV, the river seems mostly to flow from left to right. But other times it flows right to left. How could this be? I’m pretty far from the ocean, so I don’t think that high tide would affect flow that far, would it?
water freely flows from high to low though it might take time to do so. when the ocean tide is higher than the river then it will flow until the height is equal.
Yep. I’ve observed this as well. In Nova Scotia. And NJ is not that far from the ocean at all so entirely possible. Do you ever notice a tidal bore at change of tide?
the Nova Scotia situation is so amazingly extreme…Rahway river isn’t much of a comparison, but, sure, depending on wind and tide chart, you will see reversal on many coastal rivers up and down any coast.
does anyone know if this only happens on ‘east’ coasts? Do the fjords of Western Norway, for example, have tidal bores?
You’re not far from the ocean at all. It’s tidal.
Probably. Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet in Anchorage has big tidal bores, which the wind surfers love.
Almost certainly tidal. You can get some sincere currents in tidal rivers as many a kayaker has learned to their dismay. It’s not a lot of fun to be broadsided against a pier or mooring buoy by a three knot current.
When Jersey doesn’t keep up payments, the ocean sends all the bodies back. Everybody knows this.
Given your location, it is probably tidal. But another factor could be you misreading the direction of flow. A decent wind can cause ripples that make the river appear to be flowing backwards even when the actual flow is the normal direction.
Even the mighty Hudson River can be found to flow uptown from time to time. It’s the tides.
Not sure how far the railway bridge over the Rahway River is from you, but you can check to see if it’s flowing in one direction about 9:30 AM to 4 PM tomorrow (the 25th of Sept.) and in the other direction about 4 PM to 9:30 PM tomorrow, according to this tide chart… that would put it at appropriate flow for the tides in your area.
If you’re significantly upriver from the Railway Bridge, you might see some delay in those times to later in the day.
The tides on the Rahway river at I 95 are about 6 feet. That is about 2 to 5 miles down stream from your apartment in Rahway.
Tidal bores are really quite interesting.
Thanks! I’ll monitor over the weekend.
I mistakenly assumed that the tidal influence wouldn’t reach that far. I’ll look out for any tidal bores as well.
Yes that river is called Muhheakantuck (“river that flows two ways”) by the Lenape tribe. I assume something similar in the OP’s case, however wind could make it appear that a river is running in the opposite direction while only the top layer is counterflow.
Almost every day up to Bear Mt., and sometimes all the way to West Point. It should be noted that is actually more of a bay up to that point because the bottom is below sea level.
The Hudson is actually under tidal influence as far a Troy, north of Albany. Tides can affect rivers far inland.
In which case you don’t have a river, you have an estuary.
Garth! I think that was a haiku.
For what it’s worth, there’s another type of river that flows in two directions. The Parting of the Waters in Wyoming is a creek that divides in two with one part draining to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific.