Buffalo Bayou, TX

The next high tide at Buffalo Bayou is tomorrow at 12:47 am local time, reaching 2.06 ft above MLLW. The next low tide is at 4:38 pm (0.32 ft).

Buffalo Bayou has diurnal tides, which means a single high and a single low each day. Times shift roughly 50 minutes later each day as the moon advances, which is why a printable weekly or monthly table is more useful than a single day's times.

The lowest tide at Buffalo Bayou in the next seven days is 0.29 ft at 6:33 pm on 2026-10-15. The highest is 2.16 ft at 6:17 am on 2026-10-18.

Tides here are currently between spring and neap. The moon is waxing crescent (8% illuminated). Spring tides, the biggest range between high and low, follow the new and full moon, when the sun and moon pull in line. Neap tides, the smallest range, follow the quarter moons.

The lowest tide today at Buffalo Bayou is at 4:38 pm at 0.32 ft above MLLW. The lowest predicted tide over the next month at Buffalo Bayou is -0.2 ft.

The rule of twelfths estimates how much water moves in each hour of a roughly six-hour tide: 1/12 of the range in the first hour, then 2/12, 3/12, 3/12, 2/12 and 1/12. Water moves fastest in the middle two hours and barely moves near high and low slack.

Most inshore anglers prefer moving water rather than slack tide, so the two hours either side of a high or low, when the rule of twelfths says flow is fastest, tend to fish best. Using today's predictions, the strongest movement is between consecutive tide changes. Local conditions, wind and season matter as much as the tide itself.

Low tide exposes the most sand and the widest walking beach, and is best for tidepooling and shelling. High tide suits swimming and launching boats, though it leaves less dry beach. At Buffalo Bayou the difference between the two is about several ft of water height.

"Rule of 6" is another name for the rule of twelfths above. It is the idea that a tide takes about six hours to run, and that the water moves by a different fraction of its range in each of those six hours. Some people also use it as shorthand for the roughly six-hour gap between a high and the next low, which at Buffalo Bayou averages about 24.0 hours today.

The tide times on this page are NOAA's astronomical predictions for station 8770542, typically within about 10 minutes on timing and half a foot on height. They account for the sun and moon but not the weather. A strong onshore wind, a storm surge or unusually high or low barometric pressure can push the real water level well above or below the prediction. Never use them for navigation or life-safety decisions. NOAA's own page for this station carries the official record.

All heights are feet above mean lower low water (MLLW), the standard NOAA tidal datum for US coastal predictions, the average of the lower of the two daily low tides. A reading of 0.0 ft means water at that reference level, and a negative reading means below it.