The pulse of
Puget Sound

The real tide, rebuilt from six harmonic constituents: NOAA’s for the Sound, our own Budd Inlet gauge’s for Olympia. Twice-a-day waves (M2, S2, N2) double in height on the way to Olympia; once-a-day waves (K1, O1, P1) barely grow, yet they give each day its tall beat and its short one.

← Tideboard analysis
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Port Townsend 0.0 ft vs mean Olympia 0.0 ft vs mean
Budd Inlet gauge: loading…
The trace and Port Townsend are drawn around mean tide level. The Olympia reading and the gauge dot are in feet above MLLW, the same datum as the tideboard. Olympia uses NOAA’s constants; the rest of the Sound uses NOAA constants from Mofjeld et al. 2002 (NOAA Tech. Memo OAR PMEL-122). Six constituents land within about half an hour and a foot of a full prediction. Weather and river flow, which the gauge does see, are not included. Station contrast stretches each station’s difference from Port Townsend; the trace always shows real heights.