Keta 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 04:00 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 Africa/Accra local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Tue 19 May (range 1.4m). Next neap on Sat 23 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.

Keta occupies one of the most precarious positions of any town on the West African coast: a narrow barrier spit, in places less than 200 metres wide, with the full force of the Gulf of Guinea beating against one side and the broad, still surface of Keta Lagoon on the other. The barrier is eroding. Colonial-era buildings that stood on the beach 50 years ago now stand in the surf zone or are entirely gone. The ruins of Fort Prinzenstein, the 18th-century Danish slave fort, are the most photographed evidence of this retreat — the seaward wall is gone, and what remains stands directly at the tide line, the Atlantic washing around its foundations on a moderate swell day. The erosion is a product of both the natural energy of the Gulf of Guinea coast and the disruption to longshore sediment transport caused by the Akosombo Dam upstream on the Volta, which reduced the sand supply to the eastern Ghana coast after its construction in the 1960s. None of which makes Keta a bad place to visit. It makes it one of the most visually dramatic coastal towns in West Africa: the contrast between the churning ocean on the south side of the spit and the flat, bird-filled lagoon on the north side, separated by a strip of sand you can bicycle across in two minutes, is unlike anything else on this coast. Standing on the beach and looking south at waves that have crossed the entire South Atlantic, then turning around to look north at a 350-square-kilometre lagoon covered with egrets — the juxtaposition works. Keta Lagoon is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. It is the largest coastal lagoon in Ghana and one of the largest in West Africa. The ecology varies from the Atlantic-influenced inlet zone, which is regularly flushed and saline, to the shallow freshwater sections in the north and west, where water hyacinth and reed beds dominate and the bird community shifts from terns and waders to kingfishers, herons, and jacanas. In the dry season from December through March, when water levels drop and salinity increases, the exposed mudflats around the lagoon margins attract concentrations of Palearctic migratory waders — whimbrel, little stint, common sandpiper — alongside resident species including African jacana, long-tailed cormorant, and Kittlitz's plover. African fish eagle pairs call from the mangrove sections on the eastern margins; a reliable pair has held territory east of the Keta township for years. The tidal signal at Keta is small — one of the lowest tidal ranges in West Africa. Spring tides run only 0.6 to 0.9 metres, and neap tides are barely perceptible at 0.2 to 0.3 metres. At the beach, wave setup from the persistent southwest swell dominates water level changes far more than the astronomical tide. During the southwest monsoon season (May–September), wind tides and storm surge can raise the water level on the beach by more than the astronomical tidal range in a single event — this is when the erosion damage to the barrier is worst. The lagoon level responds to different drivers: it rises at the end of the rainy season in October and November when the Volta catchment drains south, and drops to its lowest and most saline in February and March. Tide predictions from Open-Meteo Marine carry ±45 min / ±0.3 m accuracy — the astronomical prediction is small enough at Keta that the wave-driven setup is the dominant source of uncertainty. Canoe trips on the lagoon are arranged through local operators at the Keta waterfront; two to three hours in the early morning or late afternoon is the standard excursion. From Accra, the route is east via Tema and the coastal road — roughly 180 km, about three hours. Ada Foah, where the Volta meets the ocean, is 60 km west and makes a logical combining stop on a single eastern coast trip.