Great tides in Santa Barbara

The upcoming tides in Santa Barbara worth planning around, ranked from the next 90 days of predictions (October 20, 2026 to January 17, 2027).

Santa Barbara faces south, not west: the coast here runs east-west along the Santa Barbara Channel, with the Channel Islands on the horizon, so its beaches look across sheltered channel water rather than the open Pacific. Stearns Wharf and the harbour sit at the foot of the city between West Beach and East Beach, and the tide gauge is in the harbour area. That south-facing, channel-sheltered aspect sets Santa Barbara apart from every other place on this list.

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King Tides in Santa Barbara

The California King Tides windows for the 2026–27 season, at Santa Barbara: the highest high tide, the lowest low tide and the best daylight low tide predicted here in each window. A dash means no low tide in that window falls between sunrise and sunset at this place. The same numbers are tabled for every place on the California King Tides page.

Tides in the next 14 days

Every predicted high and low tide at Santa Barbara from October 20, 2026 to November 2, 2026, in chronological order — the plain tide-table view for the coming fortnight, alongside the ranked lists below. Low tides that fall in daylight are flagged, with the same tidepooling labels used in the rankings.

Lowest low tides

The lowest predicted low tides at Santa Barbara in the window, by height. The very lowest tides of a season often fall after dark, so the daylight list below is usually the more useful one for a visit.

Daylight low tides

Low tides that fall between sunrise and sunset in Santa Barbara, ranked by height. A low tide of 1.5 ft (0.46 m) or lower generally exposes much more of the intertidal zone than an ordinary low; at or below 0.0 ft the exposure is at its best. New to tidepooling? Start with what tidepooling is and how to do it well.

Add these daylight lows to your calendar (.ics) — the ten tides above as calendar events, each spanning one hour either side of the predicted low tide.

Or subscribe to this calendar instead of downloading it — calendar apps that support webcal subscriptions re-check this file, so the events stay current as the 90-day window rolls.

For Google Calendar: on a computer, open Google Calendar Settings → Add calendar → From URL, paste this feed address and choose Add calendar: https://greattides.com/california/santa-barbara/daylight-lows.ics. Google Calendar cannot add a subscription from its mobile app.

Weekend daylight low tides

Low tides between sunrise and sunset on a Saturday or Sunday in Santa Barbara, ranked by height. This is the practical shortlist for most visits: the lowest daylight tides that fall on a day off, without scanning the full daylight list above for weekend dates. The quality labels and thresholds are the same as in the daylight list.

Highest high tides

The highest predicted high tides at Santa Barbara in the window, by height. The top of this list is where this season's king tides appear.

Largest tidal ranges

The biggest swings between one tide and the next at Santa Barbara: the absolute difference in height between consecutive high and low events, with the time the change takes.

Never miss a great tide in Santa Barbara

Highlights — only the great ones

Subscribe to this place's Highlights calendar feed and only the exceptional tides come to your calendar as the window rolls: the ten lowest low tides and the ten highest high tides at Santa Barbara in the current window — 20 events. This is the quiet feed: a few dates worth planning a trip around, not a tide table. No account and no email: the subscription is between your calendar app and this feed.

Download the highlights at Santa Barbara (.ics) — the same feed as a one-off file.

Or subscribe to this calendar instead of downloading it — calendar apps that support webcal subscriptions re-check this file, so the events stay current as the 90-day window rolls.

For Google Calendar: on a computer, open Google Calendar Settings → Add calendar → From URL, paste this feed address and choose Add calendar: https://greattides.com/california/santa-barbara/highlights.ics. Google Calendar cannot add a subscription from its mobile app.

Full calendar — every great tide

Or subscribe to this place's full great-tides calendar feed: every daylight low tide at or below 1.5 ft, every minus low tide (at or below 0.0 ft, even after dark) and every exceptionally high tide (at or above this window's 90th-percentile high, 6.14 ft (1.87 m)) at Santa Barbara — 82 events in the current window. Busier, but nothing good slips past.

Download the great tides at Santa Barbara (.ics) — the same feed as a one-off file.

Or subscribe to this calendar instead of downloading it — calendar apps that support webcal subscriptions re-check this file, so the events stay current as the 90-day window rolls.

For Google Calendar: on a computer, open Google Calendar Settings → Add calendar → From URL, paste this feed address and choose Add calendar: https://greattides.com/california/santa-barbara/great-tides.ics. Google Calendar cannot add a subscription from its mobile app.

How these rankings are calculated

Great Tides downloads the high/low tide predictions published by NOAA CO-OPS for station 9411340 (Santa Barbara) covering October 20, 2026 to January 17, 2027, and ranks the events directly: low tides by predicted height ascending, high tides by predicted height descending, and tidal ranges by the absolute height difference between consecutive events. Daylight is calculated for Santa Barbara's coordinates (latitude 34.405, longitude -119.693) with a standard solar-position calculation: a low tide counts as a daylight low when its predicted time falls between that day's sunrise and sunset. Quality labels use height thresholds only: at or below 0.0 ft is labelled “Excellent tidepooling” and 0.0 to 1.5 ft “Good tidepooling”. Rankings are relative to this station and this window; heights at different stations use the same MLLW datum name but are local to each station and are not directly interchangeable.

Questions

Where do these predictions come from?

From NOAA CO-OPS, the US agency that operates the national tide-gauge network. The predictions for Santa Barbara are calculated for the Santa Barbara station (9411340). This page was generated from the same predictions NOAA publishes in its own tide tables.

Why does the station name differ from the place name?

Places and tide stations are not the same thing. A station is a specific gauge or calculation point; Santa Barbara is the station chosen to represent Santa Barbara. Tide times and heights shift gradually along the coast, so spots a few miles away will see slightly different times.

Are these live water levels?

No. These are astronomical predictions, calculated in advance from the positions of the Moon and Sun. Wind, storms and air pressure push real water levels above or below the prediction, sometimes by a foot or more.

Can I plan a tidepool visit from this page alone?

Treat the prediction as the starting point, not the whole plan: check the local forecast and conditions before you go, and look up any rules for the south-facing Santa Barbara Channel shore at Santa Barbara locally. A low prediction tells you when the water will be out; it says nothing by itself about surf, weather or whether a particular spot is safe that day.

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Port San Luis & Avila Beach · Newport Beach & Corona del Mar · Avalon, Santa Catalina Island

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