Tidal curves are charts that show the daily times and heights of the high- and low-water marks for a particular location, along with all of the heights in between, expressed in the form of a smoothed curve. They are used by mariners and fisherman to determine both the safe times to leave and enter port along with the ideal times to begin fishing. You can create a tidal curve in Microsoft Excel with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Tidal curves are charts that show the daily times and heights of the high- and low-water marks for a particular location, along with all of the heights in between, expressed in the form of a smoothed curve.
Create a new worksheet in Excel. Enter column headings for the time of day and the height of the tide.
Populate the columns with all of your available data.
Click on the Chart Wizard button in the tool bar at the top of the screen. Select a Scatter Plot with Smooth Lines and Markers. Click on the Finish button. You will have the best approximation of the tidal curve based on the data you entered.