A king tide prompted by a supermoon earlier this week has inundated areas around Sydney Harbour, with further record tides and flooding to come.

The tide reached 2.03 metres on Tuesday morning, with water spilling onto footpaths at the Royal Botanic Garden and flooding areas near the Fleet Steps.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s duty forecaster Mohammed Nabi said high tide levels are expected to reach their highest for the year this week.

“Around this time of the year the gravitational pull of the sun combines with the gravitational pull of the moon to exacerbate high tide numbers,” he said.

“So from here on, spring tide numbers will be slightly higher.”

While water quickly receded in the afternoon, it was expected to rise again on Wednesday morning, reaching similar levels.

Mr Nabi said a supermoon experienced earlier this week is partly to blame, as well as the Earth’s proximity to the sun.

“We are ever so slightly closer than at other times of the year, so what happens is that the sun plays a slightly bigger role as opposed to other times of the year when it’s almost negligible.”

A spokeswoman for the Royal Botanic Garden said the flooding was not unusual for this time of year and urged visitors to take care.

Tide levels are expected to drop from Thursday onwards.

– Photo credit / ABC

– By By David Marchese, ABC (via Weatherzone.com.au)