When the tide comes highest
NOAA’s predictions for Hillsboro Inlet, counted: the high tides that come half a foot over the usual, the months they gather in, and when the next ones are.
NOAA predicts 706 high tides at Hillsboro Inlet in the twelve months from November 2026 through October 2027. Fifty of them come six inches or more over the usual high tide, the average of each day’s higher high at the inlet. Forty-one of those, 82%, fall in three months: August, September and October.
Most of the year’s highest tides come in three months
The highest of the twelve months is 3.8 ft on Thu, Sep 30, 2027, at 8:58am, twelve inches over the usual high. Heights here are NOAA’s, above the station’s own zero, which is the average of each day’s lower low tide. On that scale the usual high at the inlet is 2.8 ft.
Eight months have none at all: December, January, February, March, April, May, June and July. The tide still rises and falls twice a day in those months. It does not climb this far over its average.
The next ones
A high tide this far over the usual tends to come several days running. These are the next four runs, with the highest tide in each.
- Mon, Nov 23 to Fri, Nov 27, highest 3.5 ft at 8:27am on Wed, Nov 25
- Tue, Aug 3, 2027, 3.3 ft at 10:05pm
- Mon, Aug 30 to Sat, Sep 4, 2027, highest 3.6 ft at 10:07am on Thu, Sep 2
- Mon, Sep 27 to Sun, Oct 3, 2027, highest 3.8 ft at 8:58am on Thu, Sep 30
Thirty-one of the fifty come between sunrise and sunset at the pier, so most of them can be watched from the sand in daylight.
What the line is, and what it is not
NOAA calls exceptionally high tides king tides, a term it says is not a scientific one, and says higher than normal tides come with a new or full moon, when the moon is at its nearest to the earth, and in certain seasons. The counts above put a number on that for this inlet.
Half a foot over the usual is this article’s line, not NOAA’s, and it is not a flood level. NOAA lists no flood level for this station, and whether the water reaches a dock, a seawall or a street depends on how high that dock, seawall or street sits. These are predictions of the tide alone. Wind and waves on the day add to them and are not in them.
The City of Pompano Beach is drafting a plan for local flooding, and its public meeting on the draft is on Wed, Nov 18 at 6pm, at the Cultural Center, where residents are asked about flooding where they live.
The counts move with the calendar. They are worked out from NOAA’s predictions for the twelve months from the month this page is read in, each time the page is updated, and NOAA publishes the same predictions at its own page for the station. NOAA’s tide predictions for Hillsboro Inlet.