Labor Day Weekend: How To Check Tampa Bay Area Beach Conditions

SARASOTA, FL — While storm clouds might darken the skies in the Tampa Bay area for part of the Labor Day weekend, sunshine could peak through from time to time. Folks with plans to hit the beach when they can may want to check on conditions before they hit the road though. There are two places to look to get the most up-to-date information on area beaches.

Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory conducts year-round monitoring of Bay area waters and publishes the findings on the VisitBeaches.org website. The site 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 know about.

Get the Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox.

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.

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.

Image via Shutterstock