About Shark Weather

Shark Weather is a free beach-conditions site for Southern California. It covers waves, wind, water temperature, tides and official National Weather Service hazards for 28 popular beaches, plus a calm, sourced shark-advisory layer. No paywall, no accounts. A few local sponsors help keep it free; their spots are always labeled “Sponsored” and never affect scores or shark advisories (details).

How the conditions score works (1–10)

The score rates surf and swim conditions for a typical beach visit. It never rates shark risk. It adds three parts:

Score = waves + wind + water (minimum 1). Labels: 8–10 Great · 6–7 Good · 4–5 Fair · 1–3 Rough.

Hazard caps: the score is capped at 5 if any of these apply to the beach's zone: an NWS Beach Hazards Statement, High Surf Advisory, Rip Current Statement or Coastal Flood alert, or a surf zone forecast that says rip current risk is High. A High Surf Warning or a tsunami warning/advisory caps it at 3. A capped score is labeled Hazard flag.

Missing or stale data: we don't use observations older than 3 h, forecasts older than 12 h, or surf zone forecasts older than 24 h. If any input is missing, the score shows Status unknown, check lifeguards. We don't guess.

Wetsuit meter

A comfort guide based on water temperature: 72°F+ swimsuit · 67–71 spring suit or 2 mm top · 62–66 3/2 mm full suit · 58–61 4/3 mm · under 58 4/3–5/4 mm + booties. Everyone runs hot or cold differently.

Shark advisory status

There are four states: No official advisory on file Shark advisory posted Water closed (official) Status unknown, check lifeguards. They come only from official lifeguard-agency advisories that list the agency, a source link and a time, and that we've reviewed. See Shark activity.

Sources

CDIP values are shown as published, converted to feet or °F where noted. Data courtesy of CDIP. Buoys: NOAA National Data Buoy Center. Forecasts and alerts: api.weather.gov. Tides and pier temperatures: NOAA Tides & Currents. Water quality context: CA State Water Resources Control Board (Open Data Commons Attribution License). Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Leaflet (BSD-2). Fredoka font (SIL OFL).

Last build: Sun Oct 18, 4:22 pm PT.

7-day outlook & best window

The 7-day outlook shows the National Weather Service forecast for each beach’s grid point: daytime high and overnight low, wind, rain chance and a short summary. Waves appear only for days covered by the NWS surf zone forecast (usually the next 2–3 days); other days show “—” because there’s no official wave forecast. If the NWS forecast is older than 12 h we hide it.

The best window looks at the remaining daylight hours today (or tomorrow, after sunset). Each hour gets wind points from the NWS hourly forecast (same bands as the score: up to 8 mph = 3 … over 20 mph = 0, counted double) plus tide points from NOAA hourly tide predictions at the nearest station (2 for mid tide, the middle half of the day’s range, otherwise 1). The best-scoring 3-hour block wins; ties go to the earlier block. It rates conditions, not safety, and it doesn’t override NWS hazard alerts.

Sunrise, sunset & tides

Sunrise and sunset are calculated for each beach’s coordinates with NOAA’s solar equations (within about 2 minutes). High and low tides are NOAA CO-OPS predictions for the nearest tide station, in feet above MLLW.

Live cams

We embed a live cam only when its owner allows it (for example, a city’s own YouTube stream with embedding turned on, or a provider whose terms allow embedding). Otherwise we just link to the owner’s page. We never copy or re-host streams and never use Surfline cams. YouTube cams load only after you press play.

Water quality

Each beach links to its county health department’s live status page. We also show recent records from the CA State Water Board’s beach postings data (which lags real time) and link to Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card for weekly grades. Counties advise staying out of the water for 72 hours after rain.

Shark news

The shark activity page lists recent SoCal shark headlines from established news outlets: headline, outlet, date and a link, nothing copied. News reports never change a beach’s shark badge or score.

Swell details

From the NOAA NDBC spectral wave summary (.spec) for the same buoy used for wave height. NDBC splits the sea into swell (primary) and wind waves (secondary), each with height, period and the direction it comes from. We convert meters to feet and hide anything older than 3 h.

Each beach has a swell window: the range of swell directions that reach it well or partly. These are our estimates from coastline orientation and known island and headland shadowing (Channel Islands, Point Conception, Palos Verdes, Catalina, Point Loma, Point La Jolla), roughly ±15°, not surveyed. The line “reaches here well / partly / is mostly blocked” compares the primary swell direction with that window.

Wind in plain words

Each beach has an estimated bearing it faces. We compare where the NWS forecast wind comes from with straight offshore (the opposite of that bearing): within 45° is offshore, 45–80° cross-offshore, 80–100° cross-shore, 100–135° cross-onshore, beyond that onshore. Strength: up to 8 mph light, 9–14 moderate, 15–20 breezy, over 20 strong; 3 mph or less is “nearly calm: glassy”. Offshore wind grooms waves (clean); onshore wind roughs them up. Offshore wind also pushes boards and swimmers out to sea, so take care.

Where to go right now

For each region we rank beaches for the next 3 daylight hours (after sunset: the first 3 hours after sunrise tomorrow). Start with the conditions score (1–10). Then: + the average wind-direction effect from the NWS hourly forecast (offshore or nearly calm +1, strong cross-shore −0.5, onshore over 5 mph −1), + the change in wind points versus now (same wind bands as the score), + swell exposure (+1 if the primary swell is inside the beach’s estimated swell window, 0 if partly, −1 if mostly blocked), + 0.5 for mid tide (middle half of the day’s range, NOAA hourly predictions). Beaches without a complete score are left out. Hazard-capped scores stay capped. The one-line “why” shows the inputs used.

Beach info

Short facts for 27 beaches (parking, restrooms, showers, lifeguards, surf/swim zone rules, beginner notes) taken from official city, county and state park pages, each linked with the date we checked it. If we couldn’t verify something, we leave it out. We only mention crowds when an official page does, and we never estimate crowd numbers.

Beginner mode

The home-page toggle (remembered on your device) shows only beaches that meet all of these: an official source calls the spot good for beginners (quoted on the beach page); our sources note lifeguards; and right now waves are under 3 ft, forecast wind is 10 mph or less, and there’s no NWS hazard, high rip current risk or official shark advisory. Without JavaScript every beach shows, with a beginner tag where it applies. It’s a filter, not a safety rating: always check with lifeguards.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or an official advisory we missed: sharkweather1@gmail.com. Shark Weather is run by the publisher of Shark Weather.