Noaa Tides And Currents MCP

What noaa-tides-and-currents-mcp MCP server does

The noaa-tides-and-currents-mcp MCP server gives an agent access to NOAA CO-OPS data and selected National Weather Service forecast products. It covers both current observations and derived information, including water levels, tide predictions, current speed and direction, meteorological measurements, station metadata, tidal datums, harmonic constituents, sea-level trends, flooding statistics, and projections.

The package also includes locally computed astronomy tools for moon phases, sunrise and sunset, twilight, golden hour, solar position, and upcoming sun events. NWS tools provide hourly wind forecasts for US coordinates and the official coastal waters forecast for the marine zone covering a location.

How it works

The server accepts MCP tool calls and translates them into NOAA data requests or local calculations. Station tools can search by name, state, capability, or proximity, helping an agent identify the correct station before requesting observations or predictions. The station directory is cached for six hours, while request validation checks product-specific date ranges before contacting NOAA.

Most tools support a response_format choice of markdown or json. Markdown responses are formatted for reading and include units; JSON responses preserve structured payloads for downstream processing. Resources provide getting-started workflows and reference topics, while prompts support tide reports, boating-condition briefings, station flood-risk profiles, and station overviews.

Predictions should be interpreted as astronomical predictions rather than storm-surge forecasts. Observed water levels are useful for comparing actual conditions with those predictions.

Setup and configuration

Run the noaa-tides-and-currents-mcp MCP server locally with Node.js and the published npm package:

npx -y @ryancardin/noaa-tides-currents-mcp-server

The default transport is stdio. An optional HTTP mode can expose a stateless streamable MCP endpoint on a chosen local port. Claude Desktop can launch the server with an MCP configuration using npx, the -y flag, and the package name. No API key is required because the referenced NOAA APIs are open.

Tools and capabilities

The noaa-tides-and-currents-mcp MCP server includes tools for:

• Retrieving one-minute, six-minute, or hourly water-level observations, including decoded preliminary and verified quality flags.
• Requesting high and low tide events, interval tide predictions, current predictions, observed currents, and meteorological readings.
• Finding stations by capability, name, state, or geographic distance, then inspecting station records, sensors, datums, benchmarks, bins, deployments, and prediction offsets.
• Examining harmonic constituents, long-term relative sea-level trends, scenario projections through 2150, extreme water levels, historical top-ten levels, and high-tide flooding reports.
• Calculating moon and sun information and retrieving US wind and coastal marine forecasts.

The tools account for details such as different station ID formats, subordinate-station prediction offsets, Great Lakes daily-mean requirements, datum differences, and product-specific request limits. Current data can use depth bins and optional ADCP beam diagnostics. Tide predictions support high/low events for periods of up to ten years where the station and product allow it.

Limitations and notes

Data availability depends on the selected NOAA station and product. Great Lakes stations use different datum conventions and do not provide tide predictions. Subordinate stations support only high/low predictions derived from reference-station offsets. Request spans vary by product, including shorter limits for high-frequency observations and longer limits for hourly or prediction data.

Units are not uniform across every measurement: for example, metric wind values use meters per second while metric current values use centimeters per second. Responses label units, but callers should still preserve the datum and time-zone context when comparing results. The server is intended for NOAA-supported US locations and forecasts; the supplied material does not document credentials, private data sources, or broader global forecast coverage.