South Carolina

Hilton Head - Burkes Beach

A polished resort coast hides genuine fossil hash. The mid-island beaches see tidal swings that move serious sand and reveal teeth.

100

today

Prime

6.4ft swing · spring tide · low 2:03 PM · 0.10" recent rain · +20 event boost

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-05-30T22:33:31.924Z

Prime conditions today. Best window opens around the 2:03 PM low (0.3 ft). Moderate S winds (7 mph); seas around 1 ft.

Next 3 days: Next few days look steady — all prime-range. Pick whatever fits your schedule.

Best Window Today

2:03 PM

Plan around the prime low-tide window. 6.4ft swing · spring tide · low 2:03 PM · 0.10" recent rain · +20 event boost.

Hunt score

100

Prime

Astronomical low

0.3 ft

2:03 PM

Predicted real low

0.2 ft

below NOAA by 0.1 ft

Low-window wind

3 mph

Light — negligible effect

Tides: NOAA Port Royal Plantation, Hilton Head, SC (station 8669167)

Best window this week

Sat, May 30 · 2:03 PM

6.4ft swing · spring tide · low 2:03 PM · 0.10" recent rain · +20 event boost

Score

100

Prime

Confidence: Partial — noaa tide station, on-site outcomes. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

Full moon

100% illuminated

Sunrise 10:19 AM · Sunset 12:24 AM

Wind right now

7 mph from S

Gusts 16 mph · best from E

Wind is mostly offshore — slightly more beach.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Sat, May 23

Prime

low 9:02 PM

Sun, May 24

Prime

low 10:06 PM

Mon, May 25

Prime

low 10:27 AM

Tue, May 26

100

Prime

low 11:16 AM

Wed, May 27

100

Prime

low 12:01 PM

Thu, May 28

Prime

low 12:43 PM

Fri, May 29

100

Prime

low 1:23 PM

Next 7 days

Plan a trip →

Today · Sat, May 30

100

Prime

6.4ft swing

low 2:03 PM

Sun, May 31

100

Prime

6.3ft swing

low 2:42 PM

▼ 0.5ft

13mph ON

Mon, Jun 1

Prime

6.1ft swing

low 3:21 PM

Tue, Jun 2

Prime

5.8ft swing

low 3:58 PM

▼ 0.3ft

9mph ON

Wed, Jun 3

Prime

5.6ft swing

low 4:36 PM

Thu, Jun 4

Great

5.3ft swing

low 5:15 PM

Fri, Jun 5

Great

4.4ft swing

low 5:57 PM

▼ means the forecast wind will likely push the real low below NOAA's prediction (more beach to hunt). ▲ means it will likely sit above the prediction (less beach). Rough rule: ~0.04 ft per mph of sustained wind during the low-tide window.

Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 8669167 (Port Royal Plantation, Hilton Head, SC) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 100

The Hunt Score blends tide range, lunar phase, daylight timing, recent stir, wind setup, and surf.

Wave height 1.7 ft

Best low

2:03 PM at 0.3 ft

Predicted real low

0.2 ft

Wind deviation

More beach by 0.1 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Exceptional. Don't sit on this one.

Tide range

50.0 / 50

Today's swing is 6.4 ft (saturates at 6 ft = 50 pts).

Spring tide

11.9 / 15

Within ±2 days of a new or full moon = wider swing.

Daylight timing

13.7 / 15

Low in daylight = you can actually hunt.

Recent stir

1.0 / 10

Past 72h onshore wind churn (only counts hours that already happened).

Wind setup at low

1.0 / 10

Forecast wind drains 0.1 ft of water around the low.

Surf bonus

4.0 / 5

1–4 ft of recent surf = clean sorting; >7 ft = unfishable.

Recent rainfall

1.0 / 3

Past 48h rain flushes creek/inlet material onto the strand. ≥0.5" = +3.

Storm multipliermultiplier

1.00×

Peak gust 23 mph — below 25 mph threshold, no boost applied.

Event boostadded

+20

Manual + auto events (storms, drought, beach renourishment).

Show the math

components: 50.0 + 11.9 + 13.7 + 1.0 + 1.0 + 4.0 + 1.0 = 82.5 + event boost +20 = 102.5 clamped 0–100 final = 100

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components + 20 event boost, clamped 0–100.

100

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

Geology

FormationsReworked Pleistocene

EpochsPleistocene, Pliocene

Age~3 mya-10 kya

Star speciesMegalodon (uncommon)

Technique

Long slow walks at very low tide. Burkes is a quieter access than Coligny.