Which states do you show live swim advisories for?

We read live advisory feeds published by 16 states: Alabama, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. That covers 256 of the 510 beaches on this site. Other states either publish no machine-readable current status or restrict automated access to it; on those beaches we show USGS bacteria sampling instead, clearly dated.

How often are swim advisory statuses updated?

Each state updates on its own schedule — typically weekly during the swim season, and sooner after significant rainfall or a bacteria exceedance. This site re-reads every feed on a rebuild that runs every couple of hours on a best-effort basis, so this page can trail the issuing agency. Always check the agency before relying on it.

What is the difference between a swim advisory and a weather alert?

A swim advisory is a water-quality warning issued by county health departments based on bacteria sampling or rainfall. A weather alert is issued by the National Weather Service for conditions like coastal flooding, rip currents, thunderstorms, or high winds. Both appear on this page when active.

Live Alerts · 256 beaches with a swim-advisory feed

Active Advisories

Q: How is a beach swim advisory decided?

State and county health departments test water samples at monitored beaches throughout the swim season. Bacteria levels (primarily enterococci and E. coli) are used as indicators of contamination. When results exceed EPA thresholds, the responsible agency issues a swim advisory or closes the beach.

Q: Are there automatic swim advisories after rainfall?

In some states, yes. Maryland is the clearest example: any time more than 0.5 inches of rain falls in 24 hours, coastal beaches automatically go under a 48-hour no-swimming advisory due to expected stormwater runoff. Other states re-sample after heavy rain instead of posting automatically.

Active National Weather Service alerts for all 510 beaches we cover, plus live swim advisories read from 16 state health and environmental agencies, which between them monitor 256 of those beaches. Each state updates on its own schedule — typically weekly in season, sooner after heavy rain — and we re-read every feed on a rebuild that runs roughly every couple of hours, so this page can trail the issuing agency. Always check the agency before relying on it.

The other 254 beaches sit in states that either publish no machine-readable current status or restrict automated access to it. There we show dated USGS bacteria sampling on the beach page rather than implying a verdict we don't have. Which states we read.

Updated Nov 7, 1:32 PM ET Rebuilt every few hours

Swim Advisories · 27 active across 3 states

These are advisories at beaches with a page on this site. The same agencies are currently carrying 529 more at monitored sites we don't list — camps, clubs and stretches of shoreline without public access — so check the state programme directly if your spot isn't here.