Sewells Point, pierhead tidal current predictions

Now

SlackTurning

Next slack

10:10 PMEDT

Next max flood

0.8 ktSat 7:44 AM

Next max ebb

1.1 ktSat 1:39 AM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward SSW (195°); below it the ebb, running out toward N (10°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: ebb 1.0 kt 1:07 AM, slack 4:24 AM, flood 0.7 kt 7:07 AM, slack 10:04 AM, ebb 1.0 kt 1:32 PM, slack 4:47 PM, flood 0.7 kt 7:22 PM, slack 10:10 PM.

• Small Craft Advisory Small Craft Advisory issued September 25 at 9:47PM EDT until September 27 at 7:00AM EDT by NWS Wakefield VAUntil Sun 7:00 AM
  Full text

  * WHAT...North winds 15 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt and waves 2 to 5 ft. * WHERE...James River from JRB to HRBT, Including the Elizabeth River. * WHEN...Until 7 AM EDT Sunday. * IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.

  Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions.

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.

• Norfolk Harbor Reach (Buoy R '8')Subordinate current station0.3 mi
• Sewells Point (Naval Station Norfolk)Current meter (NOAA PORTS)1.1 mi
• Willoughby Bay entranceSubordinate current station2.3 mi
• Willoughby Spit, 0.8 mile northwest ofSubordinate current station2.6 mi
• Channel, middleSubordinate current station2.7 mi
• 0.9 mile southwest ofSubordinate current station3.0 mi
• Middle Ground, 1 mile south ofSubordinate current station3.0 mi
• Craney IslandSubordinate current station3.6 mi

• Tide times at Sewells Point 0.4 mi
• Tide times at Craney Island Light 3.8 mi
• Tide times at Old Point Comfort 4.1 mi
• Forecast for Newport News, 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 ACT5206, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.