Biloxi, MS tide times

Biloxi sits on a narrow peninsula jutting south into the Mississippi Sound, with Back Bay of Biloxi forming the shallow, mostly wind-driven water to the north and a long strip of Gulf-facing public beach running along the south shore of the peninsula. The tidal regime here is diurnal — typically one high and one low per day — with a mean range of around 0.5 metres MLLW, among the lowest recorded at any continuously monitored US coastal location. The astronomical tide moves the Sound by less than a foot on most days; what controls this coastline in any meaningful sense is weather, particularly the wind-driven water setup from strong southerly or south-easterly winds, and above all the potential for catastrophic storm surge during Gulf hurricanes.

Hurricane Katrina made that hierarchy irreversible in August 2005. The predicted astronomical tide at Biloxi at landfall was approximately 0.3 metres — roughly the middle of the normal diurnal range. The actual water level rose to 8 to 9 metres above mean lower low water. The surge was driven by the counterclockwise circulation of the storm pushing Gulf water northeast across the Sound and the shallow offshore shelf, with the barrier island chain providing minimal obstruction at that scale. The rebuilt Biloxi waterfront, with its raised casino complexes and elevated residential construction, reflects the reckoning with that event. The tide gauge at Biloxi was destroyed; the data gap in NOAA's record for that station tells its own story.

On a normal day, the gentle tidal exchange through the Sound's barrier island passes creates fishing conditions rather than navigation challenges. The inshore flats and grass beds of the Sound hold speckled trout (spotted seatrout), red drum, and flounder — a triumvirate that defines Gulf Coast inshore fishing from Texas to Florida. Charter boats and kayak anglers work the tide changes on the Sound flats, targeting the windows when baitfish concentrations shift with the water movement. At Back Bay, the water is too shallow and too variable in salinity and temperature for consistent sport fishing, but the crabbing can be productive.

Biloxi's casino strip along US Highway 90 is the economic spine of the coast. After Katrina, the state legislature changed the gaming law that had required casinos to float on water — post-Katrina rebuilt casinos are land-based but engineered to elevated storm specifications. The Hard Rock, Beau Rivage, Scarlet Pearl, and IP Casino Resort complexes line the beachfront highway. For visitors, the proximity of the casino strip to the public beach creates an unusual coastal landscape — wide white sand with a mid-20th-century motel strip replaced by resort towers set back from the dunes.

The NOAA CO-OPS tide gauge at Biloxi (station 8741003) provides the authoritative tidal record for this location, though the diurnal signal is small enough that weather-related water level changes often exceed the astronomical tide by a factor of two or more. Anglers and boaters should monitor National Weather Service marine forecasts alongside the tide predictions — wind direction and speed matter more than the tide state itself on the Mississippi Sound.

Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a global gridded 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 the NOAA Biloxi gauge. Given the tiny tidal range here (often 0.3 to 0.5 m total), the model uncertainty is a significant fraction of the signal. For authoritative tidal data, use NOAA CO-OPS at tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov, Biloxi station 8741003.