Hilton Head tidal current predictions

Now

Ebb 2.3 ktToward SE (146°)

Next slack

3:20 PMEDT

Next max flood

2.0 kt6:21 PM

Next max ebb

2.3 kt12:01 PM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward NW (324°); below it the ebb, running out toward SE (146°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 2:59 AM, flood 2.0 kt 5:59 AM, slack 9:17 AM, ebb 2.3 kt 12:01 PM, slack 3:20 PM, flood 2.0 kt 6:21 PM, slack 9:36 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.

• Port Royal Plantation Tower, east ofSubordinate current station1.9 mi
• Broad River Entrance, Point Royal SoundSubordinate current station2.0 mi
• Bay Point Island, S of, Broad River entranceSubordinate current station2.4 mi
• Beaufort River EntranceSubordinate current station2.8 mi
• Skull Creek, north entranceSubordinate current station4.5 mi
• Parris Island Lookout Tower, Broad RiverSubordinate current station4.9 mi
• Daws Island, SE of, Broad RiverSubordinate current station4.9 mi
• Daws Island, south of, Chechessee RiverSubordinate current station5.1 mi

• Tide times at Port Royal Plantation, Hilton Head Island 2.1 mi
• Tide times at Station Creek, west end 2.7 mi
• Tide times at Fort Fremont 4.1 mi
• Forecast for Hilton Head, 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 ACT7201, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.