Nueva Palmira, Uruguay 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 19:00 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 America/Montevideo local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Wed 20 May (range 1.5m). Last neap on Tue 19 May. 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.

Nueva Palmira stands at the confluence of the Río Paraná and Río Uruguay where both rivers merge into the Río de la Plata estuary — one of the world's major grain export corridors. The port here is a free zone terminal handling soybeans, corn, and sunflower from the interior of Argentina and Bolivia down the Paraná-Paraguay waterway. Bulk carrier traffic in the channel off Nueva Palmira is constant, and the sight of ocean-going vessels navigating a river that looks too narrow for them is one of the defining visual experiences of the Uruguayan estuary coast. The tidal pattern here is estuarine rather than open-coast: the Río de la Plata does not experience classical ocean tides. Water level is primarily driven by wind setup — sustained southeast winds (sudestadas) raise water level by 1–3 m along the western shore; persistent northwest winds lower it by a comparable amount. Open-Meteo Marine provides forecast data — the ±45-minute timing and ±0.2–0.3 m height accuracy applies to the modelled tidal component, but the wind-driven component at this location can exceed 2 m and is the dominant variable. Users should check both tidal and meteorological forecasts for accurate operational planning. For anglers, Nueva Palmira and the surrounding Colonia and Soriano departments hold some of the finest river fishing in Uruguay. Dorado (Salminus brasiliensis) — a powerful, golden-flanked fish that fights on a fly like nothing else in South American freshwater — run the Río Uruguay and the Paraná delta channels 15–40 km upstream of the confluence. Pejerrey (silverside, Odontesthes bonariensis) school in the estuary margins and are caught in quantity from the town costanera and from small boats drifting the channel edges. Bagre (catfish species, including the large surubí) work the deeper river channel. For photography, the grain elevator complex on the riverbank and the container cranes above the free zone terminal give Nueva Palmira an industrial-river aesthetic distinct from the country villa tourism of adjacent Carmelo. Dawn light on the channel from the costanera, with a grain carrier at anchor mid-river and the Entre Ríos province flatlands of Argentina beyond, is a flat-horizon river scene of considerable scale. Beach families should be aware that the costanera beach is a brown-water river beach rather than a sea beach. The river water carries suspended sediment and is brown-coloured year-round. It's safe to swim but aesthetically different from an ocean beach. Families seeking a beach experience typically drive 25 km south to the Río de la Plata beaches at Conchillas or Playa Monjolo.