Midnight Drifter

The same applies to the time of HW, but the tide tables that we all use predict HW to the nearest minute. It is common for the actual...

So, instead of thinking about the envelope of the tidal curve, I should think about a graph of tidal range. Springs occur at the...

Agreed. That's what I do. And anyway, as others have said, at a particular place the actual time and height of tide is affected by...

All those references are informative, but they do not answer my question of when exactly is a spring tide. In order to measure the age...

As far as I can see, the almanacs show spring tide to be on the same day at every port around the UK. If the time of springs (which is...

None of them. The time of 'springs' will be somewhere between them. At that time, the actual tide at that place could be anywhere...

That is for mathematicians to decide, and I assume that some must have done so. What I am interested in is where I can find data on the...

Thank you for your link to the NOAA website and your invitation to report back. It provides a very clear explanation of the basic...

The amplitude of the tidal curve increases towards springs and decreases towards neaps. The envelope of the curve has a maximum at...

From my reading, I think that friction is part of the explanation, as well as inertia.

Yes, the OP clearly knows that, but is asking why there is such a lag. I have never fully understood it myself. All the explanations...

The shape of tidal curves is basically close to a sine wave, in a simple case where tides are not much affected by Islands and what have...

Yes, HW at springs occurs at a similar time of day at a certain location. At Oban HW springs is around 0600. But my question was not...

No, sorry, it does not answer my question at all.

I am trying to understand the lag of tides - in other words, how and why spring tides occur some time after full moon and new moon, and...