Tower's Forecasts and tides

The local weather for Tower with 5-day forecasts, tide times, surf swells and wind speed predictions.

5-day weather forecast

Thu

Cloudy

4°C

Min:	2°C
Max:	4°C

Fri

Sunshine

6°C

Min:	2°C
Max:	6°C

Sat

Rain

11°C

Min:	3°C
Max:	11°C

Sun

Rain

15°C

Min:	12°C
Max:	15°C

Mon

Rain

12°C

Min:	9°C
Max:	12°C

Tides

The tidal cycle on the upper tideway is very different from the coast. The flood tide takes only four hours, while the ebb tide takes eight hours. This means that the tide rises very quickly and has resulted in many people being cut off by the tide on the foreshore and on islands. The asymmetric cycle also means that flood tide current can exceed 4 knots.

There are also very unusual conditions after prolonged periods of heavy rain in the Thames catchment. The current on the surface runs downstream even when the incoming tide is making the river level rise. This means people parking close to the river mistakenly believe the tide is going out and water levels are falling. Tower lifeboat crews have attended many flooded cars over the last 20 years.

A third anomaly occurs when the Thames barrier is raised to keep out surges in the North Sea; then there is little change of water level and tide tables become irrelevant.