Thanksgiving Beach Plans? Here’s How to Check Tampa Bay Area Water Conditions

TAMPA, FL — With T-shirt weather expected to make a return as Thanksgiving week progresses, chances are more than a few folks have big plans to hit the beach over the holiday. Checking on local beach conditions before heading out is smart though, especially as red tide remains a concern in some coastal areas in the Tampa Bay region.

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium’s VisitBeaches.org website provides a snapshot of conditions at beaches from Clearwater south to Marco Island. The online tool is updated regularly with reports on any flags, water color, red tide, air temperature, fish kills and other things beachgoers need to do about.

While the tool doesn’t cover every beach along Florida’s west coast, it provides a sampling of them. The reports are subjective, Mote notes on the website, but are designed specifically “to indicate to the beachgoer which beach may be more preferable to visit at a particular time.” Updates are generally provided twice daily.

The retooled website was rolled out late last year as an upgrade to Mote’s ongoing Beach Conditions Reporting System.

“The BCRS website was launched by Mote in 2006 to help beachgoers avoid the effects of naturally occurring Florida red tide algae, and since then it has incorporated many other kinds of beach information, such as wind direction, surf height and rip current monitoring,” Mote explained in a media release announcing the upgrades.

“With this upgraded site, we are providing more of the information that any Florida beachgoer would want, any time of the year,” said Dr. Tracy Fanara, manager of Mote’s Environmental Health Program. “We’re trying to make this a one-stop shop, whether you’re looking for updates on Florida red tide effects or other beach information.”

To check out Mote’s reporting system, visit www.VisitBeaches.org online.

The Florida Department of Health also runs the Healthy Beaches Program to keep track of water conditions throughout the state. That program focuses on reporting the results of water quality tests performed on a regular basis at beaches across the state. The results are published regularly on the FDOH website based on individual county testing and reporting programs.

As of late last week, the Florida red tide organism, Karena brevis, persisted in a patchy bloom from Pinellas County south to Monroe. Concentrations of the organism, which can cause fish kills and respiratory irritations, were found in samples in each of those counties. Concentrations were highest in samples collected in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties. To check out the state’s full report, visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission online.

As for those Thanksgiving weekend temperatures, the National Weather Service anticipates daily highs in the upper 70s to low 80s through Saturday. Sunday, Nov. 27, is expected to be a bit chillier with a high around 76 degrees in the forecast for much of the region.

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