South end tidal current predictions

Next slack

12:11 AMEDT

Next max flood

1.1 kt9:25 AM

Next max ebb

1.3 kt3:57 AM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward NW (310°); below it the ebb, running out toward SSE (165°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 12:11 AM, ebb 1.3 kt 3:57 AM, slack 6:23 AM, flood 1.1 kt 9:25 AM, slack 12:47 PM, ebb 1.4 kt 4:28 PM, slack 7:01 PM, flood 0.9 kt 9:41 PM.

• Small Craft Advisory Small Craft Advisory issued September 25 at 9:47PM EDT until September 26 at 10:00PM EDT by NWS Wakefield VAUntil 10:00 PM
  Full text

  * WHAT...North winds 15 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt and waves 1 to 3 ft. * WHERE...Rappahannock River from Urbanna to Windmill Point, York River and James River from Jamestown to the James River Bridge. * WHEN...Until 10 PM EDT Saturday. * 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.

• MiddleSubordinate current station2.2 mi
• Point of Shoals, west ofSubordinate current station3.7 mi
• North endSubordinate current station4.2 mi
• Deepwater ShoalsSubordinate current station6.3 mi
• 1.5 miles SW of shipbuilding plantSubordinate current station9.2 mi
• 0.8 mile SW of shipbuilding plantSubordinate current station9.6 mi
• Newport News ShipbuildingCurrent meter (NOAA PORTS)9.8 mi
• 0.15nm WSW of Pier No.2Harmonic current station9.9 mi

• Tide times at Burwell Bay 4.1 mi
• Tide times at Menchville 4.1 mi
• Tide times at Smithfield, Pagan River 5.6 mi
• Forecast for Rushmere, 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 ACT5311, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.