NOAA tide and current stations

NOAA's coastal and Great Lakes stations: water level, wind and temperature every six minutes.

Self-serve API, no key, irlpls adapter · docs

Mode
Live · minutes
Coverage
United States coasts, Great Lakes +4
Price
Free
Key
Not needed
Resale
Not stated
AI training
Not stated

Eight links

0 of 8 links claimed · 0 evidenced

Compiled from public sources, unclaimed. What they mean

Each link
  1. 1. Real personNot stated

    Person · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable: readings come from automated government-operated instruments, not individual contributors

  2. 2. Captured locallyNot stated

    Camera · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable; no imagery is collected

    Place · Claimed. Fixed stations with published lat/lng in the Metadata API and in each data response; stations also publish surveyed benchmarks through the benchmarks resource.

    Still open: Coordinates are agency-entered; their positional accuracy was not reviewed.

    Needs both: the weaker one counts.

  3. 3. Genuine deviceNot stated

    App · Not stated

    Still open: No documented signing or attestation of data from station to API; integrity rests on NOAA operating the network over HTTPS

  4. 4. Sealed captureNot stated

    Camera · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable; no imagery is collected

    Content · Claimed. Every preliminary water level value carries automated QC flags (outlier count, flat, rate-of-change and min/max tolerance) and a preliminary/verified level; verified data are reviewed monthly and may be marked inferred. CO-OPS specifies estimated accuracy of ±0.02 m per individual water level measurement relative to datum, and a three-standard-deviation outlier rejection test in each 6-minute average. Sensor outages and suspect data are reported per station in the sensors resource.

    Still open: The flags and accuracy figures are NOAA's own statements, not independently checkable per value. The latest (preliminary) values have not passed NOS QC/QA per the disclaimer, and the full verification procedure was not read.

    Counts only with a stated signing mechanism (C2PA, a manifest).

  5. 5. Known timestampReported

    Time · Claimed. Each value has an observation timestamp (t). CO-OPS sensor specifications say each water level value is the average of 181 one-second samples centered on each tenth of an hour, and wind speed and direction are 2-minute averages collected before each tenth of an hour.

    Still open: How station clocks are set or checked was not found in the documents read; nothing is signed or time-stamped by a third party.

    A time stated, not attested (RFC 3161, a log): Reported.

  6. 6. Tracked in transitNot stated

    Custody record (optional field) · Not stated

  7. 7. Independently verifiedNot stated

    Cross-check · Not stated

    Still open: No cross-check between stations or independent instruments is documented in the API; sigma (s) gives within-sample spread only, and monthly verification is NOAA's own review.

  8. 8. Delivered to youNot stated

    Delivery receipt (optional field) · Not stated

API

No account or key needed.

base
https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
auth
No key
access
Self-serve
adapter
noaa_tides
  • GET /mdapi/prod/webapi/stations.json
  • GET /mdapi/prod/webapi/stations/{id}/nearby.json
  • GET /api/prod/datagetter
  • GET /api/prod/datagetter

Rate limit. No numbers published. Docs say CO-OPS throttles heavy volume from a single customer and recommends sleep statements between successive calls and downloading only the data needed. Per-request length limits apply (e.g. 1 month of 6-minute data). A keyless response on 2026-10-26 carried no rate-limit headers.

Sources

16 sources
  1. Data Retrieval API base URL, parameters (station, product, date options, datum mandatory for water level, units, time_zone, format, application optional and recommended), products list incl. air_gap, currents_predictions, ofs_water_level; date=latest = last point within 18 min, recent = 72 h; water level verified monthly for the past month; per-request length limits; throttling and sleep guidance; no key parameter documented api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  2. Response fields t, v, s, f, q; q p = preliminary, v = verified; preliminary flags O,F,R,L and verified flags I,F,R,T; wind fields s, d, dr, g and flags X, R api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  3. Metadata API stations endpoint, type values (waterlevels, met, currents, watertemp, 1minute, airgap, visibility, ...), expand options, details/sensors/datums/benchmarks resources, nearby resource with radius in nautical miles (default 2) api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  4. Public domain unless annotated, may be used freely; not to be modified and presented as official; attribution requested; raw data not QC'd, use with caution; as-is, user assumes risk, no NOS liability; no mention of AI training or resale tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  5. Web services enable manual or automated machine-to-machine data retrievals; Data API, Metadata API and Derived Product API listed tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  6. Sensor specifications (updated 12/2025): water level sensors sample and transmit at six-minute intervals; each value is the average of 181 one-second samples centered on each tenth of an hour with 3-sigma outlier rejection; estimated accuracy ±0.02 m per measurement; wind speed/direction 2-minute averages, gust max 5-second average in previous 6 minutes tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  7. 2004 technical report: NWLON data relayed via GOES satellite in near real time; routine transmission every six minutes for some stations, hourly for others, every three hours for others tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  8. Live keyless test 2026-10-26 (04:59 UTC 27 Oct): water_level and wind for 9414290 returned readings timestamped 04:54 UTC, water level q='p'; no rate-limit headers in the response api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  9. Live test 2026-10-26: water_temperature at 9414290 returned 'No data was found' api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  10. Live test 2026-10-26: 9414290 sensors resource marks Water Temperature status 0, 'Suspect Data - Data failed to meet QC standards - under review' api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  11. Live test 2026-10-26: 302 waterlevels stations with lat/lng and state, incl. PR, VI, American Samoa, Bermuda and 'United States of America' entries for Guam (2), Midway, Wake and Kwajalein api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  12. Live test 2026-10-26: 85 currents stations, all with a PORTS project api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  13. Live test 2026-10-26: 314 met stations api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  14. Live test 2026-10-26: 257 1minute stations api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  15. Live test 2026-10-26: Kwajalein (1820000) returned a same-day preliminary water level; Guam 1630000, Pago Pago 1770000, Bermuda 2695540, Midway 1619910, Wake 1890000, Charlotte Amalie 9751639 and San Juan 9755371 likewise api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
  16. No first-party NOAA MCP server in the official registry; third-party NOAA tides servers listed registry.modelcontextprotocol.io
Notes

About. NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) runs fixed coastal, Great Lakes and Pacific-island stations reporting 6-minute water levels plus, at many sites, wind, air/water temperature, pressure, visibility and real-time currents (PORTS). A free, keyless Data Retrieval API returns the latest reading per station; a Metadata API lists stations with coordinates, sensor status and nearby stations so an agent can find the closest one.

Price. No fee, no account and no API key appear in the documented parameters. Keyless calls returned live data on 2026-10-25 and again on 2026-10-26.

Coverage. Fixed stations only; you cannot request a new one. A live Metadata API call on 2026-10-26 listed 302 stations of type waterlevels (most in TX, MI, AK, FL, CA, NY, WA, LA, PR), 314 of type met, 257 of type 1minute and 85 of type currents (all at PORTS harbors). Non-state stations: Apra Harbor and Pago Bay (Guam), Pago Pago (American Samoa), Midway, Wake, Kwajalein (Marshall Islands), four in the US Virgin Islands and two in Bermuda; Guam, American Samoa, Midway, Wake, Kwajalein, Bermuda and Virgin Islands stations all returned same-day water levels on 2026-10-26. Not every product exists at every station, and sensors go offline: water_temperature at San Francisco 9414290 returned 'No data was found', and its sensors resource marks that sensor status 0 with 'Suspect Data - Data failed to meet QC standards - under review.'

Timing. API docs: date=latest retrieves the last data point available within the last 18 minutes; a live test on 2026-10-26 returned a 5-minute-old reading.

Licence. Per the Tides & Currents disclaimer, information on government servers is in the public domain unless specifically annotated otherwise and may be used freely by the public. It must not be modified in content and then presented as official government material, and NOS requests attribution when its material is reproduced and re-disseminated. Raw (preliminary) data have not passed NOS quality control or quality assurance and are to be used with appropriate caution. Data are provided as-is; the user assumes the entire risk and NOS disclaims liability. The terms do not mention AI training or resale.

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Compiled from public sources · updated 2026-10-27JSONSiteCompare