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Guide

Reading a tide table on the South Carolina coast

Checked October 8, 2026 against NOAA Tides and Currents and NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

The Tides tile repeats NOAA’s predictions for the station nearest your town and, where there is one, what its gauge is measuring now. On this coast the tide is big and twice a day, about eight feet at Beaufort, six at Charleston and five and a half on the Grand Strand, and it runs far up the rivers and through the marsh. This page explains what the zero is, the shape of the tide here, which station each town reads, which tables are worked out from another station, and how far the wind can push the water off the table.

Zero is not the bottom

Every height on the tile is measured from mean lower low water — MLLW — which NOAA defines as “the average of the lower low water height of each tidal day observed over the National Tidal Datum Epoch.” Because it is an average, many low tides fall below it: a prediction of −1.0 ft on a spring tide is not an error. A charted depth is also measured from MLLW, so a creek charted at 4 feet has less than that on a minus tide.

A big tide, twice a day

This is a semidiurnal coast: two highs and two lows a day, about twelve and a half hours apart, of nearly equal height. The range grows from north to south, toward the bend of the coast at Georgia where the ocean tide peaks. NOAA’s figure for each station is the great diurnal range, “the difference in height between mean higher high water and mean lower low water”: 7.98 ft at Beaufort, 6.69 ft at Fripps Inlet, 5.76 ft at Charleston, 5.60 ft at Springmaid Pier in Myrtle Beach, 4.23 ft at Georgetown. Twice a month, at the new and full moon, the spring tides run a foot or so more than that.

The tide also arrives late up the rivers and creeks. High water at Bluffton, up the May River, comes an hour after Fort Pulaski at the Savannah River entrance; at Battery Creek above Port Royal, an hour and a quarter. On the Waccamaw at Conway it comes more than seven hours after Charleston, at a quarter of the height. A table for the inlet is the wrong table for the landing upstream.

Which station each town reads

“Live gauge” means NOAA publishes the gauge’s measured level as it comes in; “prediction” means a table and nothing measured. The Lowcountry board reads nine stations, the Charleston board nine stations and the Grand Strand board eight stations. The range is NOAA’s great diurnal range for that station; a dash means NOAA publishes no datum figure for it.

The Lowcountry

TownStationRangeReading
Daufuskie IslandDaufuskie Landing, New River 8669691—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
Hilton Head IslandSkull Creek, south entrance 8669133—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
BlufftonBluffton, May River 8669103—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
Port RoyalBattery Creek 8668092—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
BeaufortBeaufort, Beaufort River 86679997.98 ftPrediction
Lady’s IslandDistant Island Creek 8668155—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
St. Helena IslandJenkins Creek, Polawana Island 8668091—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski
Fripp IslandFripps Inlet 86684986.69 ftPrediction
Edisto BeachEdisto Beach, Edisto Island 8667630—Prediction, worked from Fort Pulaski

This board has no live gauge of its own.

Charleston and its beaches

TownStationRangeReading
Seabrook IslandRockville, Bohicket Creek 8667089—Prediction, worked from Charleston
Kiawah IslandKiawah River Bridge 8667062—Prediction, worked from Charleston
Folly BeachFolly River Bridge 8666652—Prediction, worked from Charleston
James IslandJames Island Creek 8665775—Prediction, worked from Charleston
CharlestonCharleston, Customhouse Wharf 86655305.76 ftLive gauge
Mount PleasantShem Creek 8665426—Prediction, worked from Charleston
Sullivan’s IslandThe Cove, Fort Moultrie 8665637—Prediction, worked from Charleston
Isle of PalmsIsle of Palms Pier 8665494—Prediction, worked from Charleston
McClellanvilleMcClellanville, Jeremy Creek 8663618—Prediction, worked from Charleston

The Grand Strand

TownStationRangeReading
GeorgetownGeorgetown, Sampit River entrance 86629264.23 ftPrediction
Pawleys IslandPawleys Island Pier 86620065.49 ftPrediction
Murrells InletCaptain Alex’s Marina, Murrells Inlet 8661529—Prediction, worked from Springmaid Pier
Garden City BeachGarden City Pier 86614375.60 ftPrediction
Surfside BeachGarden City Pier 86614375.60 ftPrediction
Myrtle BeachSpringmaid Pier 86610705.60 ftLive gauge
North Myrtle BeachCherry Grove, inside 8660265—Prediction, worked from Springmaid Pier
Little RiverLittle River (town) 8660121—Prediction, worked from Charleston
ConwayConway, railroad bridge 8660275—Prediction, worked from Charleston

Most tables are worked out from another station

NOAA publishes two kinds of tide prediction. “Harmonic stations are stations with tidal harmonic constants and tidal datums. Tide predictions for harmonic stations are generated directly from the harmonic constants.” But “subordinate stations are historic stations which do not have tidal harmonic constants available”, and for them NOAA first makes “high/low tide predictions for a designated harmonic station, called the ‘reference station’; then time and height adjustments are applied to correct the high/low predictions to the tidal conditions at the subordinate station.”

Seven Lowcountry tables are made from Fort Pulaski (8670870), at the Savannah River entrance: Daufuskie Landing, 30 minutes after it; Skull Creek, 34 minutes after; Bluffton, an hour after at 1.16 times the height; Battery Creek, 74 minutes after; Distant Island Creek, an hour after; Jenkins Creek, 55 minutes after; and Edisto Beach, 21 minutes before it at 0.84 times. Eight Charleston tables are made from the Charleston gauge (8665530), within about half an hour of it either way: the Isle of Palms pier 25 minutes before, McClellanville 31 minutes after. On the Grand Strand, Murrells Inlet (57 minutes after) and Cherry Grove (40 minutes after) are made from Springmaid Pier (8661070), and Little River and Conway from Charleston: Little River 13 minutes after, Conway 7 hours 19 minutes after at a quarter of the height. NOAA adds that “subordinate stations only allow for the generation of high/low tide predictions, and heights will be relative to Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW)”. Nothing at those places is measured.

Why the water is not where the prediction said

NOAA is direct about what a tide table leaves out:

The National Ocean Service: “Onshore winds may act to pile up water onto the shoreline, virtually eliminating low tide exposures”, and “strong offshore winds can move water away from coastlines, exaggerating low tide exposures.” On this coast a steady northeast wind holds the water up, which is why a nor’easter on a spring tide floods the low streets of downtown Charleston and the marsh roads, and the west wind behind a front pulls it down.

How big: between October 8, 2025 and October 7, 2026, NOAA’s hourly heights ran away from the prediction at both live gauges. At Charleston the water ran 2.1 feet above it and 1.9 below; at Springmaid Pier 2.2 above and 2.1 below. Against a six-foot range that is less than the tide itself, but two feet on top of a spring high is what puts the water over the seawalls.

So read the tile this way. Where the town has a live gauge, the measured level is the answer and the prediction is a guide to when it will rise and fall. Where the town’s table is predictions only, treat the table as the start of the question and look at the wind forecast. And a hurricane’s storm surge is a different thing altogether; it is the weather service’s warnings, not the tide table, that speak to it.

Sources