Tides today and tides tomorrow: what the tide today and the tide tomorrow will do, and whats the tide rn

How to read tides today properly

1. Start with the place. Tide times are local to a station and differ by hours along one coast. Find your place first; the table on its page is the answer to what the tide is doing there today.
2. Read today's row, then tomorrow's. Each row is one date with every predicted high and low water on it, in the station's own local clock. Tomorrow's events fall about 50 minutes later than today's, so a plan that worked this morning needs moving along.
3. Check the height, not only the time. Two low waters on the same day are usually different depths. The height column is what decides whether the flat is uncovered or merely shallow.
4. Look a week ahead for the range. Spring and neap tides run on a roughly 14-day cycle. If you want the biggest movement, look through the table for the days where the gap between high and low is widest rather than taking the first convenient afternoon.
5. Treat it as a prediction on the day. The times will be close. The heights can be off by a few tenths of a foot in ordinary weather and by much more in a storm, so leave margin for anything that matters.

Safety and the limits of a prediction

Common questions

What are the tides doing today?

That depends on where you are. Pick your place from the index and its page shows every predicted high and low water for today, with the height of each in feet above MLLW and the NOAA station the prediction was read from.

What about tomorrow's tides?

The same table runs 30 days ahead, so tomorrow is the next row down. Expect each event to fall roughly 50 minutes later than today's equivalent, because the tide follows the lunar day of about 24 hours 50 minutes rather than the solar day.

Why do today's tides differ from a nearby town's?

The tide arrives as a wave travelling along the coast and into bays and rivers, so it reaches different places at different times, and the local shape of the seabed changes how high it gets. Inside an estuary the difference over a few miles can be an hour or more.

How far ahead can tides be predicted?

Years. The astronomical part is a calculation from known orbits, which is why published tables run well into the future. What cannot be predicted that far out is the weather, and the weather is what moves real water levels away from the table on the day.

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