Iloilo, Western Visayas 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 Asia/Manila local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Wed 06 May (range 1.6m). Next neap on Mon 11 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.

Iloilo City sits at the southeastern tip of Panay island, facing the Iloilo Strait and the island of Guimaras across a channel that is shallow, current-active, and tied to the daily tidal cycle more directly than most Philippine city waterfronts. The city is built around the mouth of the Iloilo River, which enters the strait through the urban core and carries tidal influence 10 km upstream — boats and small commercial craft navigate the river on a schedule that treats the tidal curve as a working constraint. The Philippine tidal regime in the Iloilo Strait is mixed semidiurnal — two unequal high waters and two unequal low waters each day, with mean range of 1.0–1.5 m. That range is modest compared to Atlantic or Andaman Sea ports, but the Iloilo Strait geometry concentrates the tidal flow: on spring tides, current in the channel between Iloilo and Guimaras runs 1–2 knots. That is significant for the 15-minute ferry crossing and for small craft transiting the strait. The Iloilo Esplanade is the city's main promenade park, running along the river mouth. Its boardwalk level is calibrated to mean high water — the step down to the water is small at high tide, and at low water the river banks and some tidal mudflat are exposed below the promenade. The river is tidal for its first 10 km from the mouth; boatmen and river-transport operators know the tidal window for moving laden cargo vessels and check current direction before setting off upriver. Incoming flood assists upriver passage; ebb assists the downstream return. The timing shifts by roughly 50 minutes each day as the tidal cycle advances. Guimaras Island is 15 minutes across the strait from the Parola wharf terminal. The ferry route crosses the active tidal channel, where current direction and speed change four times a day. Experienced pilots adjust heading to compensate for cross-channel set on strong spring tides; passengers rarely notice, but small outrigger bancas that also make the crossing are more affected. The Guimaras crossing is the primary public transport link between the island's population and Iloilo's services and markets. Guimaras carries a significant piece of recent environmental history. In August 2006 a tanker carrying fuel oil capsized in the strait and released oil that spread across roughly 100 km of Guimaras coastline — intertidal flats, mangrove fringes, seagrass beds, and coral patches. The spill was one of the worst in Philippine history and caused substantial ecological damage to the island's coastal fisheries and marine environment. Over the following years, a combination of government cleanup, community-led restoration, and natural recovery progressively brought the seagrass beds and reef patches back. By 2026 the biological recovery is considered advanced but not complete — monitoring of seagrass health and shellfish populations in former impact zones continues. For anglers, the Iloilo Strait offers a tidal fishing pattern. The current change — the 20–30 minute window after slack water when species that feed in current reactivate — is the productive moment. The deep sections of the strait between Fort San Pedro, Iloilo's Spanish colonial fortress near the waterfront, and the Guimaras shore hold snapper and grouper; bottom-fishing is most productive on ebb current for the Iloilo-side anglers and on flood for those working the Guimaras banks. Local fisherfolk have specific spots and timing they do not publish; observation at the Parola wharf area at different tidal stages is more educational than most guides. Paddlers and kayakers using the Iloilo River should time downstream runs to begin on the ebb — the river current plus tidal ebb creates a comfortable downstream flow from the upper reaches to the mouth. Returning upstream on flood current is the symmetrical pattern. The tidal interface — where the saline front of the flood meets the fresh river water — moves roughly 2–5 km upstream depending on river flow and tide height, and is visible as a turbidity change in the water. The Molo Church, a few kilometres west of the city centre on the waterfront side of the peninsula, and Fort San Pedro near the strait edge are both historically significant landmarks within the tidal reach of the river system. Neither is endangered by normal tidal fluctuation, but storm surge from typhoons — which track across Panay regularly in the Western Pacific season — is a different concern and the reason the Esplanade boardwalk elevation was designed with the height margin it has. Tide data for Iloilo, Western Visayas comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API, a gridded model product. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.3 m — usable for trip planning, not for navigation.