The Oregon coast's king tides for the 2026-27 season peak on December 23-25, 2026, with a second run on January 21-22, 2027. Per NOAA predictions the highest high is 10.58 ft MLLW at Newport (station 9435380) on Thursday, December 24 at 11:39 AM — and that same afternoon the coast drains to the season's deepest daylight low, -2.21 ft at Port Orford (station 9431647) at 6:14 PM.
What makes these tides "king"
Nothing official. NOAA describes "king tide" as "a popular, non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides." The mechanism is a perigean spring tide: a new or full moon, when "the gravitational pull of the sun is 'added' to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth," landing close to perigee, the moon's nearest approach. NOAA says the lineup happens "typically between 6-8 times each year." For the coast, the part that matters is that the swing works both ways. During any spring tide, per NOAA, "high tides are a little higher and low tides are a little lower than average," and perigee stretches both ends — the flood that tops a harbor seawall before lunch is the same event that empties the reef at Cape Arago before dark.
The full mechanism, and the same season at the other eleven stations we compute, is in King Tides 2026 & 2027 Dates. This page is the Oregon coast only, and it has both halves: the highs people photograph, and the lows worth a drive.
The Oregon king tide dates: the season's highest highs
At all four Oregon stations the highest predicted high of the October 2026 – March 2027 season is Thursday, December 24, 2026, late morning, flanked by the 23rd and 25th. The next run is January 21-22, 2027, and November 25, 2026 makes the top five at three of the four.
| Station (NOAA id) | Highest predicted high | Date | Time of high | Next highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garibaldi (9437540) | 10.38 ft | Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | 12:11 PM | 10.28 ft Dec 23 · 10.25 ft Dec 25 · 10.19 ft Jan 22 · 10.13 ft Nov 25 |
| Newport (9435380) | 10.58 ft | Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | 11:39 AM | 10.45 ft Dec 23 · 10.44 ft Dec 25 · 10.39 ft Jan 22 · 10.29 ft Jan 21 |
| Charleston (9432780) | 9.60 ft | Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | 11:23 AM | 9.49 ft Dec 23 · 9.49 ft Dec 25 · 9.44 ft Jan 22 · 9.42 ft Nov 25 |
| Port Orford (9431647) | 9.29 ft | Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | 10:54 AM | 9.18 ft Dec 23 · 9.15 ft Dec 25 · 9.10 ft Nov 25 · 9.05 ft Jan 22 |
Each station's five highest predicted highs of the season. Computed 2026-09-02 from NOAA predictions, heights in ft MLLW, times local. Predictions are astronomical forecasts, not observations: a winter low-pressure system or onshore wind can push the actual water level well above these numbers, which is exactly why the photos matter.
Those photos are the point of the Oregon King Tides Project, run by CoastWatch with Oregon's Coastal Management Program (part of the Department of Land Conservation and Development). Volunteers photograph "the highest reach of the highest tides of the year," ideally from the same spot they photographed an ordinary high tide, so the pair shows where a future ocean might reach. When this page was written on September 2, 2026 the project had not yet posted its 2026-27 photo dates; the NOAA-predicted highs above are the days it will almost certainly name, and the project page is where the official call will appear.
The other half: the deepest daylight lows on the Oregon coast
The tides that flood the seawall at 11 AM drain the reef by dusk. Below are each station's five lowest daylight lows of the season — lows whose walkable window (the stretch under +1.0 ft MLLW) overlaps daylight by at least 30 minutes. The coast gets deeper as you go south.
Port Orford (station 9431647)
| Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Walkable window | Arrive by | Daylight in window | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | -2.21 | 6:14 PM | 3:40 – 8:55 PM | 5:14 PM | 69 min | 65 (Good) |
| Wed, Dec 23, 2026 | -2.07 | 5:26 PM | 2:55 – 8:05 PM | 4:26 PM | 113 min | 72 (Good) |
| Wed, Nov 25, 2026 | -2.05 | 6:25 PM | 3:55 – 9:05 PM | 5:25 PM | 53 min | 63 (Good) |
| Fri, Jan 22, 2027 | -1.92 | 5:56 PM | 3:35 – 8:25 PM | 4:56 PM | 103 min | 73 (Good) |
| Thu, Jan 21, 2027 | -1.89 | 5:12 PM | 2:45 – 7:45 PM | 4:12 PM | 152 min | 76 (Great) |
Charleston / Coos Bay (station 9432780)
| Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Walkable window | Arrive by | Daylight in window | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Dec 24, 2026 | -2.05 | 6:30 PM | 4:10 – 9:05 PM | 5:30 PM | 36 min | 59 (Fair) |
| Wed, Dec 23, 2026 | -1.90 | 5:42 PM | 3:20 – 8:15 PM | 4:42 PM | 86 min | 65 (Good) |
| Fri, Jan 22, 2027 | -1.77 | 6:13 PM | 4:00 – 8:35 PM | 5:13 PM | 76 min | 66 (Good) |
| Tue, Nov 24, 2026 | -1.75 | 5:54 PM | 3:40 – 8:20 PM | 4:54 PM | 66 min | 60 (Good) |
| Thu, Jan 21, 2027 | -1.70 | 5:28 PM | 3:15 – 7:55 PM | 4:28 PM | 120 min | 67 (Good) |
Newport / South Beach (station 9435380)
| Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Walkable window | Arrive by | Daylight in window | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed, Dec 23, 2026 | -1.91 | 5:53 PM | 3:40 – 8:20 PM | 4:53 PM | 60 min | 61 (Good) |
| Fri, Jan 22, 2027 | -1.89 | 6:24 PM | 4:15 – 8:45 PM | 5:24 PM | 56 min | 65 (Good) |
| Tue, Nov 24, 2026 | -1.86 | 6:04 PM | 3:55 – 8:25 PM | 5:04 PM | 46 min | 59 (Fair) |
| Thu, Jan 21, 2027 | -1.73 | 5:39 PM | 3:30 – 8:00 PM | 4:39 PM | 100 min | 64 (Good) |
| Tue, Dec 22, 2026 | -1.42 | 5:04 PM | 3:00 – 7:20 PM | 4:04 PM | 99 min | 58 (Fair) |
Garibaldi / Tillamook Bay (station 9437540)
| Date | Low (ft MLLW) | Time of low | Walkable window | Arrive by | Daylight in window | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Jan 21, 2027 | -1.66 | 5:59 PM | 4:00 – 8:15 PM | 4:59 PM | 67 min | 57 (Fair) |
| Tue, Dec 22, 2026 | -1.35 | 5:26 PM | 3:30 – 7:40 PM | 4:26 PM | 65 min | 51 (Fair) |
| Mon, Nov 23, 2026 | -1.25 | 5:43 PM | 3:50 – 7:45 PM | 4:43 PM | 48 min | 47 (Fair) |
| Wed, Jan 20, 2027 | -1.23 | 5:10 PM | 3:20 – 7:25 PM | 4:10 PM | 105 min | 55 (Fair) |
| Sat, Feb 20, 2027 | -1.18 | 6:21 PM | 4:35 – 8:20 PM | 5:21 PM | 75 min | 59 (Fair) |
Computed 2026-09-02 from NOAA predictions for stations 9431647, 9432780, 9435380 and 9437540. Heights in ft MLLW, times local. Score is Tidewindow's 0-100 rating of depth, daylight and timing; the methodology page shows the formula.
Read the daylight column before the depth column
Every one of the twenty lows above arrives between 5:04 and 6:30 PM, which on the Oregon coast in late December means at or after sunset. The depth is real; the light is not. The number that decides whether a date is worth the drive is daylight in window: Port Orford's December 24 low is the deepest water of the season at -2.21 ft, but only 69 of its window's minutes are lit. Its January 21 low is a third of a foot shallower and has 152 lit minutes — more than double — and scores 76, the only Great-band window on this page.
That is the winter pattern everywhere on this coast: show up when the window opens, in mid-afternoon, and work the falling tide while you can still see it, rather than waiting for the low itself. Summer is the opposite — the best Oregon tide pools guide covers the dawn runs — and the dawn-lows explainer explains why the deep water migrates from morning to dusk as the year turns.
Daylight windows do not disappear as the season deepens; they thin out and shift. In October, November and December 2026 respectively, Port Orford gets 8, 10 and 11 daylight windows, Charleston 7, 8 and 10, Newport 7, 7 and 8, and Garibaldi 5, 5 and 6 — the south coast's advantage in depth is also an advantage in count.
Winter lows come with winter ocean. Predictions are not observations, and swell can erase a calm-water window entirely; what a sneaker wave is, and what the official agencies say about them, is in What is a sneaker wave?.
Where to stand
Each station covers a stretch of shore, and each shore has its own access rules and its own guide:
- Port Orford (9431647): Battle Rock Beach, Rocky Point, and Port Orford's Agate Beach — the Port Orford tide pools guide, and for the beachcombing side of a dusk minus tide, agate hunting on the Oregon coast.
- Charleston (9432780): Sunset Bay State Park, Cape Arago, and Simpson Reef — the Sunset Bay and Cape Arago guide.
- Newport (9435380): Yaquina Head, Otter Rock and the Devils Punchbowl, and Seal Rock — the Yaquina Head and Otter Rock guide.
- Garibaldi (9437540): Cannon Beach's Haystack Rock, Oceanside, and Cape Meares — the Haystack Rock windows guide.
How to keep these dates
They are months away, which is how they get lost. The Tide Window Finder lists every upcoming daylight window at all four Oregon stations with its arrive-by time, and takes a ZIP code to pick the nearest station (the lookup runs in your browser; nothing is sent). The Trip Picker will chain the December 23-25 and January 21-22 runs into a best consecutive-days answer if your travel dates are flexible. And the station picker at the end of this page hands you a calendar feed that puts every Good-or-better daylight window in your calendar app with an arrive-by alarm — subscribe once, and the whole season above is inside its range.