Whats the difference between High Water and high Tide?

[Mac attack]

On the weather tonight they showed high water times around the south coast and there was big differences for high water times between towns that were only a small distances apart.

[burnhal]

Generally speaking High Tide and High Water are one and the same thing. Variation in high tide times is a very complex subject based on a whole lot of things such as the fact that we are an island with a very convoluted coastline, depth of water, pinch point, coastline shape. Very basically the hump or bulge of water raised by the moons gravity reaches parts of the coast at differing times. The South Coast is made more complex in the Hampshire/ Dorset area by the Isle of Wight- a double tide due to water entering at either end of the solent at differing times. Think its a subject worth researching and reading up on.

[Loosehead]

Sorry not an answer, but I live in Bournemouth and Burnhal just remined me of the many happy hours spent in Geog at school postulating theories to explain the double tides round here, ahh nostalgia, aint what it used to be!