understanding tide charts

K

karatejoe

Seaman
Joined
Apr 30, 2010
Messages
59
I have been searching on line on how to read a tide chart but having no luck finding anything. What I dont understand is this.
Lets say the chart says H tide @ 6 am is 2.30 ft and L tide is 1.54 feet @ 3pm.
I understand when low and high tide is but what are the measurements? Sometimes it says low tide is -0.16 ft. What is the base line?What exactly is the footage depth telling me ?
 
Boatist

Boatist

Rear Admiral
Joined
Apr 22, 2002
Messages
4,552
Re: understanding tide charts

The footage is the height above or below mean low water.
Mean low water is also what you will see on the charts.
So if mean low water is 5 feet on the chart and you have a +6 foot tide then you have 11 feet of water.
If you have a -2 foot low tide then you have only 3 feet of water.

The only hard part to me is adding or subtracting the time from the tide station.
Is the high tide 2 hour later or one hour eariler at the point where you at.
It gets eaiser when you go to the same area offten.

Then the last factor is how much rain run off is coming down the river and will the tide even change directions.

Ocean is pretty easy.
 
D

dan t.

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,131
Re: understanding tide charts

In Canada they do it differently, the lowest tide of the year is a 0 tide, everything is measured + from there,thus there are no minus tides
 
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