High tide: when is high tide near me, what time is high tide today, what time is high tide tomorrow, whens high tide, when is it high tide, and when is the next high tide near me

How to read high tide properly

1. Look up your station's time, not a rule of thumb. There is no fixed offset from moonrise or from noon that works. The time of high water at a place is set by the shape of the coast and the seabed as well as by the moon, and it is published per station. Find the place and read its table.
2. Expect it to shift each day. Successive high waters at the same place are about 12 hours 25 minutes apart, so today's afternoon high is tomorrow's early evening high. Over a week it moves by nearly six hours.
3. Watch the moon for how high. Around new and full moon the sun and moon pull in line and the highs run higher and the lows lower: spring tides. At the quarters they pull across each other and the range shrinks: neap tides. The cycle repeats about every 14 days.
4. Add the weather. A low-pressure system and an onshore wind can push a high water well above its predicted height. Coastal flooding almost always happens when a weather surge lands on top of an already-high spring tide, not on the prediction alone.
5. Give yourself margin on a rising tide. The water comes in fastest around the middle of the rise, not at the end. If you are on a sandbar or below a cliff, the hour you thought you had can close much faster than the numbers suggest.

Safety and the limits of a prediction

Common questions

What time is high tide today?

It depends entirely on where you are: high water at one place can be hours from high water fifty miles up the same coast. Find your place in the index and its table gives the predicted times for today and the next 30 days, with the NOAA station they were read from.

How many high tides are there in a day?

Two, at most US coasts, about 12 hours 25 minutes apart. Because the lunar day runs about 24 hours 50 minutes, some calendar days hold only one high water. Parts of the Gulf coast are diurnal and get one high and one low a day.

Why is high tide later every day?

The tide keeps time with the moon rather than the sun. The moon returns to the same position overhead about 50 minutes later each day, so each high water follows the last by about 12 hours 25 minutes and the whole pattern walks forward through the clock.

When is high tide highest?

Around new and full moon, when the sun's pull lines up with the moon's, which is a spring tide. The very largest come when that alignment coincides with the moon at perigee, its closest approach, giving what is often called a king tide.

Places by state