Halifax, Nova Scotia 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 01:00 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/Halifax local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 1.9m). Next neap on Sat 16 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.

Halifax sits on the Atlantic-facing south shore of Nova Scotia, on a long deep harbour ringed by Citadel Hill, the working container piers, the Dartmouth crossing, and McNabs Island guarding the seaward end. The tide here runs the open Atlantic signal — cleanly semidiurnal, two highs and two lows of comparable size each day, twelve and a half hours apart — with a moderate range of about 1.3 metres at the harbour gauge, climbing past 1.7 metres on spring tides and dropping near 0.9 on neaps. That is small compared to what the rest of the Maritimes carries: round the peninsula into the Bay of Fundy at Burntcoat Head and the same astronomical forcing produces a swing of roughly 12 metres on a normal day and over 16 on the largest spring tides — the world record. Halifax sits well outside that resonant amplifier, on the open Atlantic side of the peninsula, so the harbour stays workable across the cycle for the container ships and the Halifax-Dartmouth ferries that don't notice the change. The Northwest Arm sea kayakers, fishers off Sambro and Peggy's Cove, and walkers on McNabs Island and the Eastern Passage shore each read the table for different windows. Lowest spring lows around new and full moons open the rocky intertidal at Point Pleasant Park and the granite ledges south of the city. Open-Meteo Marine drives the gridded predictions on this page; for authoritative Canadian Maritime tide data, the Canadian Hydrographic Service publishes the official Halifax gauge readings and the Atlantic-coast tide tables.