Thimble Shoal Channel (west end) tidal current predictions

Now

Ebb 1.3 ktToward ESE (116°)

Next slack

8:41 PMEDT

Next max flood

0.7 kt11:08 PM

Next max ebb

1.4 kt6:04 PM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward WNW (293°); below it the ebb, running out toward ESE (116°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 12:37 AM, ebb 1.7 kt 4:56 AM, slack 7:15 AM, flood 1.6 kt 10:49 AM, slack 2:11 PM, ebb 1.4 kt 6:04 PM, slack 8:41 PM, flood 0.7 kt 11:08 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.

• Thimble Shoal Channel, 2.4 n.mi east of Ft. MonroeCurrent meter (NOAA PORTS)1.3 mi
• 0.55 nmi east ofSubordinate current station3.8 mi
• Hampton Roads entrance, midchannelHarmonic current station4.4 mi
• Willoughby Spit, 0.8 mile northwest ofSubordinate current station4.8 mi
• 0.2 mile south ofSubordinate current station4.9 mi
• Willoughby Bay entranceSubordinate current station5.0 mi
• 0.9 mile southwest ofSubordinate current station5.6 mi
• Little Creek, 0.2 nmi N of east jettySubordinate current station5.6 mi

• Tide times at Old Point Comfort 4.9 mi
• Tide times at Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel 6.8 mi
• Tide times at Little Creek, Nab 7.1 mi
• Forecast for East Hampton, 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 ACT5161, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.