Portsmouth (NH) Harbor – 43.1°N, 70.8°W

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From Ceres Street, Portsmouth, N.H., looking northeast over the Piscataqua River toward Maine.

River traffic. The Piscataqua River is a swift tidal river. When the tide comes in (right to left <--- above), it reverses the river's normal flow. Travel by tankers and other large vessels is restricted to slack tide, when the current is more or less zero. See the chart below for slack tide times at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor (map), which is roughly three miles downstream.

Piscataqua River Currents
Thu 12:47am    1.38 knots Max Flood
Thu 03:48am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Thu 05:55am    Sunrise
Thu 07:13am    -2.06 knots Max Ebb
Thu 10:53am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Thu 11:17am    Moonset
Thu 01:12pm    1.53 knots Max Flood
Thu 04:28pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Thu 07:35pm    Sunset
Thu 07:41pm    -2.01 knots Max Ebb
Thu 09:31pm    Moonrise
Thu 11:26pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 01:35am    1.32 knots Max Flood
Fri 04:31am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 05:56am    Sunrise
Fri 08:01am    -1.97 knots Max Ebb
Fri 11:40am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 12:33pm    Moonset
Fri 02:00pm    1.49 knots Max Flood
Fri 05:15pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 07:33pm    Sunset
Fri 08:32pm    -1.97 knots Max Ebb
Fri 10:03pm    Moonrise

Current Conditions

78.4 oF
clear

An EarthCam Top 10 Webcam

New Hampshire-Maine border. The N.H.-Maine border lies in the middle of the Piscataqua River. Its exact location was the subject of a long-running dispute settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Piscataqua River. This Piscataqua River is a 13-mile long tidal estuary formed by merging of the Salmon and Cocheco rivers. The river, which separates Maine and New Hampshire, also drains Great Bay, a National Estuarine Research Reserve site. The last 8.8 miles of the Piscataqua River constitute Portsmouth Harbor, which stretches across New Castle, Portsmouth, and Newington, and the Maine communities of Kittery and Eliot.

Currents. The swift currents of the Piscataqua River make Portsmouth Harbor one of the fastest flowing commercial port waterways in the northeastern United States. The ice-free deep-water channel has been used for shipping since the 1600s.

Points of Interest Portsmouth Harbor

Points of Interest
1. Moran Towing tugboats
2. Public benches
3. Ferry Landing restaurant
4. Tug Alley Too tugboat
5. Memorial Bridge
6. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
7. Badger's Island, Kittery, Maine

What kind of name is Piscataqua (Piss-cat-a-qua)? Easy for you to say, but not so easy to spell. See an extended examination of the origin of the word at SeacoastNH.com and 20 ways to spell Piscataqua.

More information. For more about the Piscataqua River, see the Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources web page.

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