Chesapeake Channel (bridge tunnel) tidal current predictions

Now

Flood 0.7 ktToward NNW (335°)

Next slack

1:53 PMEDT

Next max flood

3.0 kt10:27 AM

Next max ebb

1.8 kt5:00 PM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward NNW (335°); below it the ebb, running out toward SE (145°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 12:40 AM, ebb 2.1 kt 4:06 AM, slack 6:55 AM, flood 3.0 kt 10:27 AM, slack 1:53 PM, ebb 1.8 kt 5:00 PM, slack 8:03 PM, flood 1.6 kt 10:44 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.

• Chesapeake Channel (Buoy '15')Subordinate current station1.5 mi
• Cape Henry Light, 8.3 mi. NW ofSubordinate current station2.1 mi
• Fishermans Island, 3.2 miles WSW ofSubordinate current station2.6 mi
• Tail of the HorseshoeSubordinate current station3.8 mi
• Cape Henry Light, 5.9 nmi north ofSubordinate current station4.6 mi
• Fishermans Island, 1.4 miles WSW ofSubordinate current station4.6 mi
• 0.75nm west, Thimble Shoal ChannelHarmonic current station5.3 mi
• Cape Henry Light, 4.6 miles north ofSubordinate current station5.4 mi

• Tide times at Cbbt, Chesapeake Channel 0.9 mi
• Tide times at Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel 5.7 mi
• Tide times at Fishermans Island 6.2 mi
• Forecast for Virginia Beach, VA
• Open the live map with tidal currents
• All tidal current stations in Virginia

Tidal current predictions from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), station ACT4576, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.