Tides

Tides_{(updated: 2024-12-06)}

Note: The new Daylight Savings Time dates are a half baked idea that I am currently just going to stubbornly ignore (Mexico has eradicated DST). So, if you are concerned or bothered by it, you'll have to make your own corrections for the extra three weeks in March and one in November (a real sunny month!). Practically, I don't see too many people at the beach to be affected by the tides, and the sun times will be out an hour. [Update 2023-04-03: I fixed my Puerto tide charts to remove CDT.]

This page is updated regularly (yeah, sure you say) to reflect current conditions.

Sunrises and Sunsets - and now high noon: Vancouver or Puerto Escondido
If you would like sunset charts for anywhere, just e-mail me, and I'll send them to you.

Tide Listings to 2025-05-10
Vancouver	Text	HTML	*HTML (printable weekends)	*HTML (printable high)
Point Grey	Text	HTML	*HTML (printable weekends)	*HTML (printable high)
Point Atkinson	Text	HTML	*HTML (printable weekends)	*HTML (printable high)
Puerto Escondido	Text	HTML	*HTML (printable weekends)	*HTML (printable high)

Stats from 2024-12-01 0:00 CST to 2025-05-10 0:00 CST

Units are metres

VANCOUVER (81-11-03) (index number: 7735)

Minimum tide level was 0.165597 at 2024-12-15 23:51 PST Maximum tide level was 5.042632 at 2024-12-16 7:38 PST Mean tide level was 3.084953 POINT GREY (index number: 7635)

Minimum tide level was 0.161324 at 2024-12-15 23:35 PST Maximum tide level was 5.071540 at 2024-12-16 7:19 PST Mean tide level was 3.061519 POINT ATKINSON (index number: 7795)

Minimum tide level was 0.124327 at 2025-04-29 13:27 PDT Maximum tide level was 4.939125 at 2024-12-16 7:19 PST Mean tide level was 3.108579 PUERTO ESCONDIDO, OAXACA

Minimum tide level was -0.023342 at 2025-03-05 12:40 CST Maximum tide level was 1.365490 at 2025-04-30 16:48 CST Mean tide level was 0.595227

Extreme Tides to 2037

Vancouver: Sorted by height | date

Point Grey: Sorted by height | date

Puerto Escondido: Sorted by height | date

What is the sea level?

I did a whole load of research on ocean levels, searching for what are the mean water levels, but all I found out is that the ocean level is really variable due to many factors. The Mean Sea Level (aka Mean Tide Level) is just the arithmetic mean of all the tides, as given here by TIDE.EXE

Also, I found an excellent primer from the NOAA on Tides, explaining the Astronomical Factors, Tides and Tidal Currents

Check out the TOTALLY Interactive Tide Site. (TITS)

Several years ago, I downloaded tide.exe from tide150.zip on Hobbes, and it is one of the neatest programs that I have ever used. In fact, I have probably spent 100's hours on it already, and it's still really neat! What it does, is show the tides and currents for anywhere on the planet for any time and duration that you want. The bad news is that many places do not yet have data available, but the good news is about half the data is for British Columbia, so almost every log on the B.C. coast has an entry.

I also downloaded the new harmonics.canadian file (1.1 MB), which contains over 1000 Canadian locations, using 61 harmonic constituents for which I now use for my data. This file has data for the following localities, which are not generally available without the above file:

S.W. B.C. Localities:

White Rock, Crescent Beach, Tsawwassen, Roberts Bank, Sand Heads, Canoe Pass, Steveston, Middle Arm, North Arm, Point Grey, New Westminster, False Creek, Vancouver, Alberta Pool Elev., Stanovan, Port Moody, Deep Cove, Lake Buntzen, Point Atkinson

If you would like tide charts for any time or place, just mail me, and I'll process, then send them to you.

You can put out text or graphic data, which is real neat, and there are many switches to allow you to show almost anything you want. I was able to run a 200 day graphic, to show that the moon's phases do not coincide with the tides, as I had been told, but rather appear to lag the lunar cycle by a few days. My conjecture is that the lunar orbit's eccentric axis is aligned about 45 degrees ccw from the sun to earth's normal.

TIDE 1.5 for OS2

(other platforms) and real full README

This is an OS2 port by Dale DePriest of the tide program written by David Flater. This program will compute accurate tides for many areas thoughout the world. This port requires emxrt.zip be installed and was built with EMX 0.9c with fix01. [you should get this anyway, as more and more and more unix ports use it]

This version of tide can generate ascii graphics and text output as well a ppm graphic output, all which have time zone and units support. You should be able to view the graphics with a suitable graphic program such as PMView.

Other Platforms

Q: "Has this been ported to Windows / OS/2 / anything but Unix?"

A: Yes, to varying degrees. The TTY-only client compiles as-is under EMX on OS/2 and DOS thanks to Dale DePriest, and is alleged to compile without modification under Windows NT. Binaries for OS/2 and DOS are available; refer to the Installation section for more information. The graphic client was ported to Microsoft Windows by Paul C. Roberts (paul@slothdom.demon.co.uk) and/or Alex (alex@slothdom.demon.co.uk); the modified sources and binaries are available at ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win3/apps/wtide.

The TTY client was ported to the Macintosh by Mikhail Fridberg (fridberg@pfc.mit.edu); the modified sources and binary are in ftp://ftp.flaterco.com/xtide/MacTide133sit.hqx (binhexed Stuffit archive).

PLEASE NOTE: Ports of XTide to non-Unix platforms are supported by the people who did the ports. I am only responsible for fixing bugs in the original Unix sources.

[to page top]

Tides(updated: 2024-12-06)

Sunrises and Sunsets - and now high noon: Vancouver or Puerto Escondido If you would like sunset charts for anywhere, just e-mail me, and I'll send them to you.