St. Andrews State Park water temperature by month

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.