And if you don't know what that is, Jomarie Lanza explains and she spoke to the mayor about coping strategies for the city:

King Tides are swallowing low lying Belize City - and this morning coming unto high tide out here on foreshore - this man looked like he could ride his bicycle right out to the sea where the catamaran was making its way to shore.

Today, the mayor pointed to climate change - and the level of the Belize river:

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
"Climate change plan on climate change mixed in obviously with some flooding of the river. I spoke to my CEMO liaison officer and she had a discussion with the hydrologist and they had indicated that the Belize river has reached a stage of high levels last Friday coming in from the Mopan river and the Macal. and therefore that downstream activity mixed in the high tides is what is occurring."

Or, more accurately, King Tides which appear in September right through to December and according to this fact sheet from a UD disaster response agency they are considered "the highest predicted high tide of the year at a coastal location."

"These King tides occur when the orbits and alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun combine to produce the greatest tidal effects of the year."

And with the full moon arriving tomorrow, the tides in Coastal communities will be among the highest of the year. With climate change and rising sea levels, experts agree King Tides are higher than ever.

But you don't need to be an expert to know that what happened in the city this morning - and what will happen again tonight at 9:15 -is unusual.

In Belize city's low areas, the effect has been very pronounced since Saturday and it peaked this morning at rush hour.

The mayor's advice for residents?

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
"Well that's a very good question. The point is that we have to begin to really as a community as a city that we live along the coast. That we begin to look at climate change for what it is. It is a serious event that is occurring and it will only get worse. When I was a child I will tell you this flooding what I am seeing now. It's not that the streets were better, we have much better now. We have much better drainage, but climate change, the rise and sea level is what is this sort of situation."

So, with tides predicted to be high all week - according to this bulletin from. Florida - city residents will have to watch the weather report to know when the high tide is due and brace for localized flooding:

Bernard Wagner
"I think we have to pay attention to the key things that impact our lives. It can't just be a situation where the authorities or government or local government it has to be you taking ownership as well of your surroundings and understanding and trying to make your surroundings as palatable as possible in respect to how you address the effects of climate change it has to be a community effort, not only at the government level."

But the government can perhaps turn on the Yabra pumping station. However with the sea level higher than the drains and canals - it wouldn't do any good:

Bernard Wagner
"What happened here is that the high tide comes from out of the sea so we could not really utilize the pumping station it would be a null effect because the water is coming in from the sea, and it is now being mixed with downstream water coming in from the Mopan and Macal into the river so, from a municipality standpoint there is not much we can do. We just have to wait for the tide to go down and I believe that it will not be this significant. I am told that it is just a week or so of this sort of occurrence. I went to church last night and when I came out of church, the entire area was underwater so what can we do?"

"But we have to be innovative, and we have to look at adapting to the reality of what is happening and putting in the sort of safe walls the guard rails in respect to our coast and it could be sort of project that really builds on mangroves utilizing our mangroves using more of the friendlier type of innovative projects that really enhance our coast."

"I call on our people to really begin to take climate change for what it is. It is a serious event. In Belize City, based on discussions with various experts, we are seeing that Belize city will be under the threat of severe coastal erosion by 2050 so we live along the coast and have to take it for what it is the local government. The national government have to begin to put in place and I see this because we are currently working on a project in respect to what we are speaking about right now in adapting to these sorts of climate events."

The US Environmental Protection Agency warns that "Over time, sea level rise is raising the height of tidal systems."

The next high tide is at 9:08 tonight, followed by another high tide at 9:10 tomorrow morning.