Does high tide always coincide with moonrise?

Question

Tidal charts seem to confirm it, at least on the East Coast. Am I right?

Answer 1

If the only affect on tide was the lunar position, the time of moon rise and set on the horizon should correspond to LOW tide. Local high tide would occur when the moon is directly overhead and antipodal.

You are correct in stating that lunar position is the most important influence on tides at any location, and any methodology that is based on that position (such as moonrise in your question) will yield very consistant results.

However there are a number of other factors that disturb this basic picture for any given location. One is the solar position, while weaker than lunar attraction, is measurable in effect. Another is shoreline geometry which can influence greatly the timing of the local high tide. Distant shores can "reflect" their high tide occurance and disrupt the simple lunar tide sequence many hundred of miles away. This can give rise to several hundred of additional "cycles" that are known to occur for a given costal location.

Answer 2

no

Answer 3

Because the earth rotates on its axis the moon completes one orbit in our sky every 25 hours (Not to be confused with moon's 27 day orbit around the earth), we get two tidal peaks as well as two tidal troughs. These events are separated by about 12 hours. Since the moon moves around the Earth, it is not always in the same place at the same time each day. So, each day, the times for high and low tides change by 50 minutes.