Charleston tide times

1. Low tide5:38 AM0.3 ft
2. High tide11:58 AM6.4 ft
3. Low tide6:34 PM1.0 ft

Feet above mean lower low water. Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Sunrise 7:14 AM, sunset 7:04 PM.

None right now. The National Weather Service issues coastal flood advisories and warnings, storm surge watches and warnings, high surf advisories and tsunami messages for water at this station.

Next moon phases: last quarter Sat, Oct 3, new moon Sat, Oct 10.

Add to calendarAdd to Google CalendarDownload (.ics)

The calendar holds every high and low for the next three months and keeps itself three months ahead.

• Measured
• Predicted tide

Storm surge

Measured less predicted: +0.43 ft now; over 48 hours, +0.05 ft to +0.77 ft. Wind, air pressure and river flow move the water off the tide table.

Coastal flood thresholds

The water is 5.17 ft below minor flood level now. Highest predicted tide in the next 7 days: 6.3 ft on Fri, Oct 2 at 1:03 PM, 0.7 ft below minor flooding. Thresholds are the National Weather Service’s, used for its coastal flood advisories and warnings, in feet above MLLW.

From May 2025 to April 2026 the water reached minor high tide flooding on 6 days. NOAA’s outlook for May 2026 to April 2027 is 12 to 17 days.

Last year

6 daysMay 2025 to April 2026

Outlook

12 to 17 daysMay 2026 to April 2027

Record

17 daysMay 2023 to April 2024

Typical in 2000

2 daysNOAA’s trend value

Recent years

Thresholds

NOAA’s national high tide flooding thresholds, set from the tide range so they compare from one gauge to the next. MHHW is the average of each day’s higher high tide; MLLW is the zero of this page’s tide tables. Where the National Weather Service has set flood levels of its own (under Water level), those drive its coastal flood advisories and can differ.

Flood days ahead

NOAA’s likeliest range for 2050: 70 to 90 days a year of minor flooding, between the Intermediate and Intermediate-High scenarios, and 5 to 10 days of moderate.

Projected by NOAA from the 2022 interagency sea level rise scenarios (see Sea level rise below): the average days a year in each decade.

By 2050, 1.0 ft (Low) to 1.6 ft (High); Intermediate 1.2 ft, likely 1.0 ft to 1.5 ft. By 2100, 1.7 ft (Low) to 6.9 ft (High); Intermediate 3.8 ft, likely 3.1 ft to 4.3 ft.

• Low
• Intermediate-Low
• Intermediate
• Intermediate-High
• High
• Intermediate, likely range
• Measured trend, continued

Measured here from 1901 to 2025, sea level rose 3.51 mm a year (±0.10, 95% confidence), 1.15 ft in 100 years.

The five scenarios run from 0.3 to 2.0 meters (1 to 6.6 feet) of global rise by 2100, each adjusted for this coast’s sinking or rising land and its ocean. They agree closely to 2050, when most of the rise is already set, and part after it with how fast the ice sheets melt. The likely range is the 17th to 83rd percentile.

See 1 to 10 ft of rise on the map

Mean range of tide 5.22 ft; great diurnal range 5.77 ft.

Heights are feet above mean lower low water (MLLW): the average of the lower of each day’s two low tides over NOAA’s 19-year tidal epoch, and the zero of US tide tables and nautical charts. A low tide below that average is printed as a negative height.

Predictions are astronomical. They account for the moon and the sun, not the weather: onshore wind, low air pressure and high river flow hold the water above the prediction, offshore wind and high pressure hold it below. The water level above measures the difference.

Spring tides, the largest ranges of the month, follow the new and full moon by a day or two. Neap tides, the smallest, follow the quarter moons.

• South Ashley BridgeTide predictions1.9 mi
• Fort JohnsonTide predictions2.5 mi
• Shem CreekTide predictions2.6 mi
• James Island Creek, 1 mi. above entTide predictions2.9 mi
• Wappoo Creek, highway bridgeTide predictions3.0 mi
• Hobcaw PointTide predictions3.1 mi
• Fort SumterTide predictions3.3 mi
• Shipyard Creek, 0.8 mile above entranceTide predictions3.9 mi

• Forecast for Charleston, SC
• Live radar at this station
• Charleston County Area Beaches beach forecast
• October 2026 tide table
• November 2026 tide table
• December 2026 tide table
• January 2027 tide table
• Sea level rise on the map at this station
• All tide stations in South Carolina

Tide predictions and water levels from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS). Coastal flood, storm surge and high surf products from the National Weather Service. High tide flooding counts, outlook and projections from NOAA CO-OPS’s high tide flooding products (thresholds after Sweet et al. 2018). Sea level rise scenarios from the 2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report (Sweet et al. 2022), as NOAA publishes them per gauge. Measured trend from NOAA’s sea level trends. Station 8665530: original at NOAA.