Cherbourg 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 06:00 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/Paris local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Sat 02 May (range 5.1m). Next neap on Fri 08 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.

Cherbourg sits at the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula where Normandy's granite juts northward into the English Channel, and the tidal range here is among the largest in Europe. Spring tides reach 6 metres; neap tides settle around 2.5 metres. In practical terms that is a 3.5-metre difference in the height of the sea surface between a typical spring and neap cycle — and it means the intertidal zone along the Cotentin coast changes character dramatically depending on where you are in the lunar month. At low water on a big spring tide, rocky platforms and reef systems that are permanently submerged for weeks at a time emerge from the sea for a few hours. The oyster beds laid out across the sand flats south of the peninsula toward Portbail and Barneville-Carteret operate on a calendar built around these windows. Cherbourg itself is defined by its port. The harbour, protected by the Grande Rade breakwater — one of the longest artificial breakwaters in Europe at 3.6 kilometres, built under Napoleon to shelter French naval vessels from the Channel weather — handles cross-Channel ferry traffic to Poole, Portsmouth, and Rosslare in Ireland. The ferry schedules interact with the tidal picture in the outer Channel: captains and pilots track the tidal stream through the wider Channel approaches, and the departure times from Cherbourg are calculated to make the best use of fair tidal current on the crossing. Northwest of the port, the headland of Cap de la Hague reaches toward the Channel Islands. Between the cape and Alderney lies the Raz Blanchard — the Alderney Race — where the flood and ebb of the English Channel are forced through a 7-kilometre gap and spring tidal currents build to around 8 knots in the main stream. This is not a number that registers as abstract; an 8-knot current against a 20-knot southwesterly wind produces a short, steep sea state that is dangerous for small vessels. The Race is one of the premier tidal-race kayaking destinations in Europe, attracting expedition sea kayakers who plan transits precisely around the tidal window, but it demands serious preparation and local knowledge. Anglers working the rocky ground around Cap de la Hague and the Cotentin coves target bass (bar in French), pollack, and wrasse. The rocky reef systems are most productive on the first two hours of flood, when baitfish are pushed in over the rocks and predators follow. The timing of those windows shifts by roughly 50 minutes each day as the tidal cycle progresses through the lunar month, which means keeping the tide table visible is a practical habit rather than an academic one. Swimmers and beach visitors at the large sandy beaches on the west side of the Cotentin — Siouville, Flamanville, Barneville — work with a different reality. The beaches widen substantially at low water; the comfortable swimming area deepens at high. On a 6-metre spring tide, the vertical change between standing-in-ankle-deep and standing-on-dry-sand is dramatic, and the rate of flood — the horizontal run of the tide across a gently sloping beach — can be several hundred metres per hour on the lowest gradients. Paying attention to which way the tide is running is simply part of being on the Cotentin coast. The D-Day beaches are a 60-kilometre drive south and east into Calvados department. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword all lie on a coast with the same semidiurnal tidal pattern, and Allied planners on June 6, 1944 used the tide with precision: landings timed to arrive in the window between nautical twilight and a tide height that would float landing craft over the beach obstacles, while still exposing enough of the obstacles to be visible for navigation. The tidal timing that shaped that planning window is the same tidal cycle that governs the coast today. The predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. For Cherbourg's 6-metre spring range, the height uncertainty is proportionally small, and the predictions are a reliable planning reference. Authoritative data for Normandy comes from the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM), which operates the French national gauge network and publishes the official Annuaire des marées.