Swell-Forecast.com - European SURF forecasting

Tide charts

These show the times and heights of high and low water for each day. In Europe the tides are semi-diurnal (two high tides and two low tides a day). Sometimes you will find a column in the table called 'coefficient'. This is simply a number representing the relative tidal range, in other words the difference between high and low water.

High numbers mean big tidal ranges (called springs) and small numbers mean small tidal ranges (neaps). Numbers around 100 (or slightly higher) are the highest tides of the year, which tend to occur around the equinoxes (March and September).

Each month the tide oscillates between springs and neaps twice. This means that one week it will be springs and the next week, neaps. Springs occur just after the new and full moon, and neaps occur just after half moon.