Fort Walton Beach water temperature by month

Swimmable from April through November.

Month by month

Month Typical Feels
January 64° brisk
February 64° brisk
March 67° refreshing
April 71° refreshing
May 78° perfect
June 83° bath-warm
July 86° bath-warm
August 87° bath-warm
September 85° bath-warm
October 79° perfect
November 74° perfect
December 68° refreshing

The year at a glance

swimmable 50° 60° 70° 80° 90° 100° 87° 64° JFMAMJJASOND January: typically 64° — brisk February: typically 64° — brisk March: typically 67° — refreshing April: typically 71° — refreshing May: typically 78° — perfect June: typically 83° — bath-warm July: typically 86° — bath-warm August: typically 87° — bath-warm September: typically 85° — bath-warm October: typically 79° — perfect November: typically 74° — perfect December: typically 68° — refreshing

Typical for this month

Typically about 79° in October — perfect.

from the satellite record for the water off Fort Walton Beach

perfect

bath-warm 80° and up perfect 72–79° refreshing 65–71° brisk below 65° 79° typical for October

Jellyfish and sea lice

What usually turns up on the Florida Panhandle and the Alabama coast, and when.

  • The drifters arrive first. The extension office here reports Portuguese man-of-war and by-the-wind sailors coming in early — one year they turned up in February — with the sea nettles and moon jellies later in the summer. UF/IFAS Extension's Escambia County office — So when are the jellyfish going to be here?
  • Which side of the island you swim on can matter more than the month: the same office notes that when jellyfish are numerous on the Gulf side they are usually not in the sound behind it, and the other way round. UF/IFAS Extension's Escambia County office — So when are the jellyfish going to be here?
  • Sea lice is more a south Florida and Caribbean complaint than a northern Gulf one — it has been reported down there for decades, and reports from this stretch of coast are not common. UF/IFAS Extension — They call it "sea lice"

This is what a season usually looks like, not a forecast of any particular week. Jellyfish drift on wind and current, so the people who watch them say there are tendencies but no guarantees — the lifeguard flags on the day beat any calendar.

About this reading

The satellite record for the water off Fort Walton Beach covers about fifteen miles of open water off this beach. Nothing is in the water here — a satellite reads the surface of that whole stretch of ocean once a day, and the surf zone itself is too narrow to appear in it.

Warm water says nothing about surf, rip currents, or bacteria — check local lifeguard flags and advisories.