The next high waters at Mahone Harbour, the wind arriving with each one, and what the nearest forecast gauge says the weather is adding to the sea — the three things that have to line up before water reaches Edgewater Street. Email alerts when they do.
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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/mahone-bay-nova-scotia-ca/high-water-watch
A high tide on its own is an ordinary day. What puts water on Edgewater and Main is a tall tide arriving at the same hour as a wind out of the bay, with a storm surge underneath it. This page lines those three up against each other, high water by high water, so you can see whether they are heading for the same hour.
Next high water
Mon, Oct 12, 9:51 a.m., 2.1 m — one of the tallest in the days listed.
The wind at that hour is light air from the NNW.
The high waters ahead
High water
Height
Wind then
Gauge
Mon, Oct 12, 9:51 a.m.
2.1 m
light air, NNW 4 km/h (gusts 5)
+1 cm
Mon, Oct 12, 10:25 p.m.
2.0 m
a gentle breeze, NNE 19 km/h (gusts 46)
+1 cm
Tue, Oct 13, 10:30 a.m.
2.1 m
a gentle breeze, NE 17 km/h (gusts 25)
+1 cm
Tue, Oct 13, 11:05 p.m.
1.9 m
a moderate breeze, ESE 21 km/h (gusts 32)
−1 cm
Wed, Oct 14, 11:08 a.m.
2.0 m
a gentle breeze, SE 16 km/h (gusts 35)
—
Wed, Oct 14, 11:45 p.m.
1.8 m
a gentle breeze, WNW 17 km/h (gusts 43)
—
Thu, Oct 15, 11:46 a.m.
1.9 m
a moderate breeze, NW 22 km/h (gusts 54)
—
Fri, Oct 16, 12:25 a.m.
1.7 m
a gentle breeze, NW 14 km/h (gusts 41)
—
Fri, Oct 16, 12:24 p.m.
1.8 m
light air, SW 5 km/h (gusts 11)
—
Sat, Oct 17, 1:10 a.m.
1.6 m
a moderate breeze, S 27 km/h (gusts 63)
—
Sat, Oct 17, 1:04 p.m.
1.7 m
a moderate breeze, W 24 km/h (gusts 46)
—
Sun, Oct 18, 2:00 a.m.
1.6 m
a moderate breeze, WNW 22 km/h (gusts 46)
—
Sun, Oct 18, 1:50 p.m.
1.6 m
a moderate breeze, WNW 27 km/h (gusts 41)
—
Mon, Oct 19, 2:59 a.m.
1.5 m
no forecast yet
—
Predictions for the Mahone Harbour gauge — not measurements, and not a reading at any particular wharf. The predictions are computed for Mahone Harbour itself, at the head of the bay off the town. There is no longer a working gauge here — the Canadian Hydrographic Service lists Mahone Harbour as discontinued, which is why the surge reading further down comes from a gauge in Halifax. The gauge column is blank past the two days the water-level forecast covers.
What the weather is adding to the sea
The nearest gauge that forecasts a water level is at Bedford Institute, Halifax Harbour, about 66 km away. The figures below are how far that gauge runs above or below its own tide table — the part the weather is adding, at that gauge, not in this harbour.
Forecast to peak at +2 cm against its tide table around 12:45 p.m.
Over the last day it has actually run at up to +6 cm against it.
This gauge is in Halifax Harbour, about 66 km east — the nearest one on the coast that publishes a water-level forecast at all. The storm-driven part of a surge is regional and travels along this shore, so the figure is worth knowing here; the part that depends on the shape of Mahone Bay is not in it. Treat it as the weather's contribution somewhere nearby, never as a reading for this harbour.
We do not add this figure to the high waters above. They are two agencies’ numbers for two different places, and summing them would invent a third number nobody published.
How this page decides
A high water is called “worth watching” when three things happen at once: it is within 15 cm of the tallest high water in the days listed below, the wind at that hour is blowing out of the bay, and that wind reaches a strong breeze on the Beaufort scale. Nothing here is a water-depth threshold we invented — the wind words are the published Beaufort scale, and “near the tallest” is arithmetic against the same tide table on this page.
From Edgewater Street the open water runs away to the east-southeast, past the Tancook Islands (a bearing of about 105°), and out to the Atlantic to the southeast (about 139°). A wind from that arc has the whole length of the bay to push water up towards the town; a wind of the same strength off the land does not. The sector this page uses is 100° to 180° — east-southeast round to south. It is the direction the town's own flood exposure is built against: the living shoreline of rock sills, tidal wetland and vegetated bank went in along Edgewater Street in front of the three churches in 2022, and Edgewater and Main are the streets that go under.
The heights are astronomical predictions in metres above chart datum. They are what the sea would do with no weather at all: a tide table knows nothing about wind, rain or pressure.
This page describes water and wind. It is not a flood warning, it does not say water will reach any particular place, and it never says a tide is safe. Official warnings come from the channels below.
Worth knowing here
What actually floods
Edgewater and Main Streets on the waterfront. In 2022 the town built a 60-metre living shoreline — rock sills, a tidal wetland and a vegetated bank — along Edgewater Street in front of the three churches, to take the energy out of waves and surge before they reach the road. Residents credited it with sparing the churches when Hurricane Fiona came through later that year.
The tides on this page are not the whole future water level
The town's own adaptation work puts sea-level rise here at about 0.53 m by 2065 and 1.08 m by 2100 on the IPCC RCP 8.5 regional projections, and takes Hurricane Juan as the benchmark for how far a surge can go on top of a high tide. Those are increments that will sit on top of the heights in the table above, not replacements for them.
The wind forecast is a weather model on a grid several kilometres across, so it describes the day rather than your street corner. The water-level forecast at the Halifax gauge runs about two days ahead, which is why the gauge column in the table above is blank further out. And chart datum is a survey level, not a doorstep: a height in metres above it says how much water there is, not how far up the road it comes.
One email when a coming high water has all three — a tall tide, an onshore wind, and that wind strong enough to matter. Nothing on ordinary tides. No account needed, and you can unsubscribe from any email.