Low Tide

Home Forums Open Discussion Low Tide

  • This topic is empty.
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #593933

    lazybeard
    Participant

    When does low tide occur and how do you calculate when it’s going to occur?

    #688849

    cjboffoli
    Participant

    lazybeard: Tides are generally on a twelve and a half hour cycle with two high and two low tides per day. The easiest way to determine low tide is to use a tide chart. There are many online. Here is a link to one of them: http://bit.ly/bJ6QYo

    #688850

    lazybeard
    Participant

    Ah ha! Thank you cjboffoli. I’ve always been curious how it works.

    #688851

    herongrrrl
    Participant

    Not an exact method of calculating by any means, but generally speaking, if you know the time of a given low tide you can estimate that the corresponding low the following day will be about an hour later.

    Each day there’s a “low low” and “high low” tide level, and also a “high high” and a “low high” tide level.

    Tides are lowest and highest at new and full moons; during quarter moons they are not as extreme.

    The lowest tide of winter will usually be at approximately midnight on the night of the full moon closest to the Winter Solstice, and the lowest tide of summer will be at approximately noon on the day of the full moon closest the Summer Solstice. This is purely coincidental for Seattle, as it happens; the explanation I was given by an oceanographer for why it happens that way was incredibly complicated and I’ve forgotten most of it, but I think it’s pretty cool that it works out that way.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.