Can someone explain to me why the size if the tide is different in other locations. Where I live a big tide is 4.5m. 4 hours north on the same day they have a 5m tide. 6 hours south they have a 2.9m Tide. You can see the pattern, the further north you go the bigger the tide, wrong. If you look at the tide 7 hours north on the same day they have a 3m tide.
Can someone explain in full what is going on!
FYI, I live in central qld.

With regards to localised differences (ignoring the moons, latitude etc)..is substantially dependent on the shape of the coastline and the sea floor. Bloke from another forum best describes it by using Bay of Fundy (North America) as an example with tides of several meters or more. This can be applied in less dramatic terms for areas along QLD.

"The funnel shaped opening to the sea collects the water. The momentum of the incoming water is conserved. As the channel narrows, the water is squeezed laterally and expands vertically. The effect is so dramatic that frequently one can observe a tidal bore ... a wave the forms in front of the incoming tide.

To summarize, Conservation of Momentum and Conservation of Energy are the principles involved. As the gravitational energy pulls the tides into the Bay of Fundy, some of its kinetic energy is converted to potential energy in terms of the depth of the water."

Dl33ta said...
Shoalwater Bay has the biggest tides in Queensland (up to 7.5m or something) and if you look at the topology in light of what JM says you can see why. Outside of Shoalwater the rest of Queensland is pretty sedate, particularly inside the reef but also from Yeppoon south.

Jesus, I didn't realize that just up the road the tide was that big. At port Clinton it's 3.9 Today, and around the corner a few km it's 6.2. That's a huge difference!

... we have 8m tides but thats nothing like what the guys in Broome get, 12m some times!

Some days we have to walk nearly 2km just to get to the waters edge and if you have a race board you gotta walk another 1/2 km just about to get deep enough water.

On a rising tide so many newbies get caught out rigging too close to the waters edge and get swamped, even though they have rigged 200m away.

Mind you, one of the benifits of big varied tides is the water conditions can be so varied that you kinda have a 3 in 1 spot,,,,,, low tide you have super flat water, mid tide you have small kicker waves then high tide you have head high waves,,,,, yep, all at one location, just depends on what tide you have!

Robbie

Puetz said..
... we have 8m tides but thats nothing like what the guys in Broome get, 12m some times!

Some days we have to walk nearly 2km just to get to the waters edge and if you have a race board you gotta walk another 1/2 km just about to get deep enough water.

On a rising tide so many newbies get caught out rigging too close to the waters edge and get swamped, even though they have rigged 200m away.

Mind you, one of the benifits of big varied tides is the water conditions can be so varied that you kinda have a 3 in 1 spot,,,,,, low tide you have super flat water, mid tide you have small kicker waves then high tide you have head high waves,,,,, yep, all at one location, just depends on what tide you have!

Robbie

I don't have tides where i live... The local damn only rises when the rain falls.