Tide chart and tide times for US beaches and harbors

Most of the Atlantic coast has a semidiurnal tide: two highs and two lows a day, of nearly equal height, about six hours and a quarter apart. At Myrtle Beach the average day runs 5.3 ft from low to high, and each tide comes some fifty minutes later than the day before because the moon returns over the same meridian every 24 hours and 50 minutes.

The Pacific coast, Alaska's south coast and Hawaii have a mixed tide: still two highs and two lows, but unequal. In San Diego the two highs of a day differ by 1.7 ft on average, which is why West Coast tables speak of a "higher high" and a "lower low", and why the best low tides for tide pools fall on one low of the day, not both.

Much of the Gulf of Mexico has a diurnal tide: often one high and one low a day, with a small range. Galveston has a single high on 55% of days and an average range of 2.1 ft, so wind can matter as much as the moon there. The station pages say which kind applies and draw it as it is.

Every height on this site is in feet above Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW), the average of the lower of the two daily lows over NOAA's 19-year datum epoch. It is the zero of US nautical charts, so a charted depth plus the predicted tide gives the depth to expect. A low tide of -0.8 ft is water eight tenths of a foot below that average, a negative tide: they bunch around the new and full moon and uncover the most beach. NOAA explains each datum (MHHW, MSL, MLLW) and the station pages list the datums of their station when NOAA publishes them.

A height is not a depth at the shoreline. The same 5 ft high tide covers a steep beach a few yards higher up and a flat beach a hundred yards further in, which is why the planner asks for a level, not a beach width.

French and British tide tables give each day a coefficient; US tables do not. This site publishes one for every day and station, defined simply: the day's range divided by the station's average daily range, times 100. A coefficient of 100 is an ordinary day; 115 and more are spring tides, around new and full moon; under 85, the neap tides of the quarter moons. Above 130 the range is exceptional, the days when king tides flood low streets and the lowest lows of the season expose sand bars. Because it is relative to each station, a coefficient of 120 means the same thing in Bar Harbor and in Destin, even though one moves 11.1 ft on an average day and the other 0.6 ft. The spring and neap tides guide shows how it follows the moon.

The solunar tables of John Alden Knight, first published in 1926, place four feeding windows in each day: two major periods of about two hours around the moon's upper transit (overhead) and lower transit (underfoot), and two minor periods of about an hour around moonrise and moonset. The tool shows them as green bands under the curve, computed for the station's own longitude and latitude, and gives the day a rating from one to four stars that adds the closeness of the new or full moon and the overlap of a period with sunrise or sunset. The rule is printed on the method page: it is a tradition anglers find useful, not a measured law of fish behavior, and moving water around a tide change usually matters as much. The solunar tables give two weeks at a time.

Each station page ends with a planner. Choose "walk the beach", set the water level under which your walk is easy (a sand bar, a jetty, a cove that only opens at low water) and the planner lists every window of 30 minutes or more under that level over 3 to 30 days, in daylight if you want. Choose "launch or retrieve a boat" and it lists the hours when the water stays above the depth your ramp needs. The low tide beach planner and the boat ramp planner do the same for any station over 60 days. The windows are solved on the curve to the minute, then rounded for display.

The highs and lows are NOAA's predictions, unchanged. Between them, reference stations use NOAA's hourly predictions joined by a smooth curve that cannot overshoot: tested against NOAA's own six-minute predictions for October 12 to 18, 2026, the curve stays within 0.0 ft at Myrtle Beach and 0.0 ft at San Diego. Subordinate stations, for which NOAA publishes only highs and lows, take the shape of their reference station's curve. Predictions describe the astronomical tide only: a strong onshore wind, a hurricane surge, heavy rain in a river or a high-pressure system can move the real water by a foot or more, which no prediction anticipates. For the water level being measured right now, NOAA's station pages show the observations.

A tide that turns behind you on a sand bar can cut off the way back faster than you can walk, especially on flat beaches with big ranges such as the coast of Maine or Cook Inlet in Alaska, where the water moves several feet an hour in the middle of the rise. Plan to be off the flats before the low turns, not when the water reaches your feet. Inlets run strongest in the middle hours of an outgoing tide, and rip currents form on any beach whatever the tide: the National Weather Service rip current page explains how to spot and escape one. Nothing on this site is for navigation: use official charts, local notices and your own judgment.