When I use the Conditions Tab in CE, “Sometimes” I see slack tide information. But most of the time I do not see that information. Is there a way to find the slack tide information at EVERY tide station?
Are you referring to the tide levels or tidal currents section (see image)? Not every tide station has information for currents, and there are often fewer of these compared to those that measure height of tide.
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Did requiem answer your question? Let us know if you still have questions about this.
My question was vague. But the answer was perfect. Not all tide stations have current information. That really is the root of my question. However, that has lead me to wonder why some tide stations do and some do NOT have current information. Perhaps that is after an analysis of the typical conditions to discover having current information is not as critical as some locations as other locations. Or maybe it is random, or economics, or what?
There are no tide stations that have current information. There are tide stations that have tide information, and there are current stations that have current information. They are both the result of tidal forces but they measure different things.
Ok, separate stations for different information. However, in CE when i pick a mark for what i thought were tide stations, I do not see a delineation of the two. Are there two lists showing each? Or is there just one type of mark because where there is a tide station there is also a current station? I do see that CE has separated the information, which is nicely done.
Tide stations and current stations have a distinctive appearance that matches the function of the station. Tide stations show whether the tide is increasing or decreasing, and it shows the current tide level.
Current stations appear either as an arrow or a small circle. The small circle indicates that it’s slack tide, or that the station is in a location with very low currents all the time.
Here is a screenshot showing how each appears.
While it’s possible to place a tide-station and a current station at the same location, this is not generally done.
Ok, I think we covered this subject pretty thoroughly. Thank you for all the detailed information and your patience. The little circles have always been a mystery to me.
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One more point of clarification on currents and ETA’s. I believe that CE does not actually use current information in the ETA calculations. And if we choose to do so ourselves, we can simply select from the list of current stations identified by CE. Is this correct?
We do use current stations for planned ETA calculations, but not underway ETA calculations. So the ETAs in route details should use current, but you must assign the appropriate station to the appropriate route legs. It easy to test that by plotting a route through a pass with strong switching currents. It can have a very dramatic effect on ETA in details.
Thanks again for the great info. I’ve now done some testing to see the effect of the current station data. Very powerful information. That lead me back to NOAA where I found this site:
And now I wonder, does CE load every current station from NOAA? I’ve pasted that data into an Excel sheet so I’ll have it with me while underway. Is that something CE might consider adding in a tabular form?
Yes, we deliver every USA tide and current station provided by NOAA. We do show tabular data when it’s appropriate.
For example:
See the red arrow pointing to the tabular data for the tide station I’ve selected.
I wasn’t clear in my question. Now that I have been to the NOAA site and saw the list of current stations, it surprised me by the enormous number of current stations. I obviously did not realize how many stations are right under my nose. What I have now done is created an excel sheet with the entire list of current stations in Puget Sound, my home waters. Having a list of the current stations and their locations will help me stay aware of the many fast currents we have locally. With time, this becomes less valuable. But for me it will be a good learning tool. And I also have gained a better appreciation for how much goes into this software.
I think I understand now. You would like Coastal Explorer to generate a list of all the stations available through our software.
If so, I’m sorry, but we do not currently have a simple list of all the stations, just the database that CE uses to present the information from each station in a human consumable way. Thank you for the feedback, though. We always consider all feature requests.
All the tide and current stations within Coastal Explorer are updated from NOAA, so they should be the same as what you’ve found on their website.