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NOAA station 8720030
Amelia Island tide chart
High and low tide times and heights for Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, with a seven-day schedule. The gauge sits on the Amelia River and reads against the MLLW datum, so these are predictions: a hard wind or a big rain can push the real water a few inches either way.
Reading the tide…
Next high tide
Next low tide
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Today, hour by hour
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| Day | Highs and lows | Curve |
|---|---|---|
| Loading the seven-day table… | ||
What the tide actually changes here
Amelia runs a semidiurnal tide: two highs and two lows a day, roughly six hours apart, with a range that usually sits around six feet. That range is big enough that the island genuinely looks like a different place at either end of it.
The beach
Low tide doubles the beach. The hard flat sand between the dune line and the water is widest for the hour or two either side of low, which is when the beach is walkable end to end and when the sandbars show. It is also when shelling and shark-tooth hunting are worth doing.
Planning around a low tide? Whether the water is clear of red tide is the other half of that decision, read from the state's own sampling.
Kayaks and the marsh
High tide floats the creeks. The marsh behind the island drains to mud, so a creek that is paddleable two hours either side of high can be a mud bank at low. Launch on a rising tide and you get pushed home rather than fighting back.
Boat ramps
The ramps want water. A very low tide, especially the minus lows on a full or new moon, can leave a trailer ramp short. Check the height, not just the time: a 0.1-foot low is a different morning from a 1.5-foot low.
Fishing
Fish read the movement, not the mark. The water is doing the most in the middle of a cycle, between a high and a low, so the strongest windows are usually the couple of hours after one extreme rather than the slack sitting right on top of it.
Where these numbers come from. NOAA Tides & Currents station 8720030, Fernandina Beach, on the Amelia River. Times are local to the island and follow daylight saving. Heights are predictions relative to MLLW — mean lower low water, the average of the lower low tide each day — which is why a height can read as a negative number when the water drops below that average. Predictions are astronomy, not weather: a sustained onshore wind, a big low-pressure system or heavy river runoff can all put the real water above or below the number here.
Anything else about the island?
Amelia answers questions about the island for free — the bridge, the beach, what's open, what's on this weekend.
Ask Amelia