About Coastal Water Temperature Guide

The water temperatures in the NODC Coastal Water Temperature Guide (CWTG) are near real-time temperatures from NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) tidal stations and Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) and most recent (within the past six hours) temperatures from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) moored buoys.

In addition to near real-time water temperatures, the CWTG tables also include average water temperatures computed from long-period records ranging from several years to several decades depending on how long observations have been taken at a given station. Temperature tables (except Hawaii, Alaska, and Pacific Islands table) were originally created in the early 1980s by former NODC meteorologist Richard M. DeAngelis. Hawaii, Alaska, and Pacific Islands table values are based on NOAA/NOS publication "Surface Water Temperature and Density, Pacific Coast, North and South America & Pacific Ocean Islands." Although ocean conditions vary from year to year, water temperatures are less variable than air temperatures, so these averages can provide useful information for planning beach activities such as swimming or fishing. For the Gulf coast, only monthly averages are presented. Water temperatures vary more along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, so for these stations two-week averages are presented from April through October. Clicking on the hyperlinked "Recent Temperatures" in the table will display time series plots of the last few hours of NOS Water Temperature data for the tide station, or will go to the NDBC Buoy Page for the location.

Water temperature maps, which support interactive browsing of the real-time temperatures, are also available on the website. To use the maps please click on the appropriate map icon in the left column.

You can save time by not needing to visit each site individually by using the NODC CWTG RSS feeds. To subscribe to the NODC CWTG RSS feeds please click on the appropriate RSS icon   in the left column.