Fort Sumter Range, Buoy 16 tidal current predictions

Now

Flood 0.6 ktToward WNW (299°)

Next slack

11:23 PMEDT

Next max flood

0.8 ktWed 7:52 AM

Next max ebb

1.2 ktWed 2:50 AM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward WNW (299°); below it the ebb, running out toward SE (128°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: ebb 1.3 kt 2:05 AM, slack 4:21 AM, flood 0.8 kt 7:04 AM, slack 11:18 AM, ebb 1.4 kt 2:40 PM, slack 5:06 PM, flood 0.7 kt 7:30 PM, slack 11:23 PM.

None right now. The National Weather Service issues small craft advisories, gale and storm warnings, special marine warnings, dense fog advisories and coastal flood products for water like this.

The flood is the tidal current running in from the sea, the ebb the current running back out. Slack water is the short turn between them, when the current is weakest: the time to cross a strong channel, anchor, or dive. Slack in a channel is not the time of high or low tide; it can come hours after.

Speeds are knots along the channel's main axis, and directions are degrees true toward which the water flows, as NOAA prints its tables. A current against the wind stands the waves up steep and close together.

Predictions are astronomical: the moon and the sun, not the weather. Strong wind, river flow after heavy rain and storm surge all change the real current. This is a subordinate station: NOAA predicts it from a nearby harmonic station by fixed corrections to the times and speeds of its slack waters and maxima, so the curve between them is less exact.

• North Jetty, 0.8 mile southeast ofSubordinate current station0.5 mi
• Fort Sumter Range, Buoy 18Subordinate current station1.2 mi
• Fort Sumter Range, Buoy 14Subordinate current station2.4 mi
• Charleston Hbr. ent. (between jetties)Subordinate current station2.7 mi
• Fort Sumter Range, Buoy 22Subordinate current station3.5 mi
• South Jetty, break inSubordinate current station3.6 mi
• Fort Sumter Range, Buoy 10Subordinate current station4.4 mi
• Charleston Harbor (off Fort Sumter)Harmonic current station5.3 mi

• Tide times at Sullivans Island (outer coast) 4.3 mi
• Tide times at Breach Inlet, Isle of Palms 4.4 mi
• Tide times at Isle of Palms Pier 4.7 mi
• Forecast for Sullivans Island, SC
• Open the live map with tidal currents
• All tidal current stations in South Carolina

Tidal current predictions from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), station ACT6621, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.