Whitby, Yorkshire 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 05:00 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 Europe/London local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 4.8m / 15.7ft). Last neap on Sat 16 May. Next neap on Fri 22 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.

Whitby sits on the North Yorkshire coast where the River Esk cuts a narrow harbour between two cliffs, the eastern one topped by the ruined abbey that draws the photographs. The tide here runs the classic North Sea signature: cleanly semidiurnal, two highs and two lows of comparable size each day, twelve and a half hours apart. Mean range at the harbour mouth is about 4.2 metres, climbing toward 5 metres on spring tides and dropping near 2.4 on neaps. The harbour itself dries to a thin channel near the bottom of every spring low, and small-boat owners moor on the foreshore knowing they will sit on the mud for several hours each cycle. The wide sand at Whitby Sands and the rocky shelf round to Saltwick Bay are tide-dependent: the beach at the foot of the abbey steps widens by 30 metres on the low and reshapes daily. Tide pooling at Saltwick Nab opens up at the lower spring tides of the month, and fossil-hunters on the Jurassic Coast between Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay time their walks for the bottom of the cycle. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo's gridded marine model — useful for daily planning but not navigation-grade. UK Hydrographic Office Admiralty TotalTide is the authoritative British tide product.