Vancouver, British Columbia tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 21:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are America/Vancouver local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sat 16 May (range 5.3m). Last neap on Fri 15 May. Next neap on Thu 21 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Vancouver sits between the Fraser river delta and the deep glacier-carved fjord of Burrard Inlet on the lower mainland of British Columbia, with the open Pacific reaching it through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia. The tide here is a strongly amplified mixed semidiurnal signal — two highs and two lows of distinctly unequal size each day, with the difference between the higher high and the lower low routinely exceeding the difference between the two highs themselves. Mean range at the Burrard Inlet gauge near the seaplane terminal at Coal Harbour is about 3.1 metres, climbing past 4.5 metres between the lower-low and the higher-high on the largest spring tides and dropping near 2.0 on neaps. The asymmetric daily swing is the defining feature of the Pacific Canadian coast — the morning low and the evening low can differ by a full metre or more, and the same for the highs, particularly through the summer months when the inequality is most pronounced. The Strait of Georgia funnels the open Pacific signal as it propagates inland from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the further north and east you go inside the basin the larger the swing becomes; tidal currents through Seymour Narrows and the Discovery Passage north of Campbell River exceed 15 knots on the spring change of tide and rank among the strongest navigable currents in the world. Stanley Park's intertidal zone at Third Beach, the Lighthouse Park rocks across the inlet at West Vancouver, and the long sand at Spanish Banks, Locarno, and Jericho widen by 30 metres or more at the bottom of the cycle. Lowest spring lows around new and full moons open the kelp-and-rock intertidal across the inlet at Whytecliff Park for hours either side. The seaplane traffic at Coal Harbour, the SeaBus across to North Vancouver, the working container terminals at Vanterm and Deltaport, and the recreational boat fleet leaving False Creek for the Gulf Islands all read the table for different windows. Open-Meteo Marine drives the gridded predictions on this page; for authoritative Canadian Pacific tide data, the Canadian Hydrographic Service publishes the official tide tables and operates the Point Atkinson and Vancouver Harbour reference gauges.