Special note: tidal
variations in the Isle of Wight/Solent area
From a climber's perspective the normal expectation
is that there will be two high tides and two low tides within any 24 hour
period. The time between high tides being somewhere between 12 - 13 hours
apart and the pattern being roughly sinusodial as shown in the following
profile.
Normal tide profile showing obvious 2x high and 2x low
tides:
The resultant tide table is quite straightforward:
| 00:12 |
High |
6.8m |
07:36 |
Low |
0.7m |
12:30 |
High |
7.0m |
19:54 |
Low |
0.5m |
For some locations in the area around the Isle of
Wight, tidal streams are modified by the island and these 'standing' tides
can increase the duration of high water. In a nutshell, low tides might not
be as low as you'd like, nor as long as you'd like, and you might find
yourself with wet feet! From a climber's point of view, this affects the
Needles, Portland and Swanage areas.
Standing tide profile (for Totland Bay) showing much
less distinct high & low tides:
The tide table generated by this graph is much more
confusing, even showing high and low tides of the same height (due to
computer rounding and approximation errors):
Some care is required when looking at a tide table
which has more than the normal 2-High/2-Low tides in 24hrs. Particular
attention should be payed to the height columns since these will indicate
the real periods of high and low water.
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