Vanderbilt Beach water temperature by month
Swimmable from February through December.
Month by month
| Month | Typical | Feels |
|---|---|---|
| January | 66° | refreshing |
| February | 70° | refreshing |
| March | 74° | perfect |
| April | 78° | perfect |
| May | 83° | bath-warm |
| June | 86° | bath-warm |
| July | 88° | bath-warm |
| August | 88° | bath-warm |
| September | 86° | bath-warm |
| October | 82° | bath-warm |
| November | 76° | perfect |
| December | 70° | refreshing |
The year at a glance
Typical for this month
Typically about 82° in October — bath-warm.
from the satellite record for the water off Vanderbilt Beach
bath-warm
Seaweed season
The Florida Gulf coast from the Big Bend down to Naples is mostly free of sargassum, all year, however much of it is out at sea.
This is the lab's own finding rather than a quiet season: it reports this stretch mostly free of sargassum whatever the amount floating out in the Gulf. The Panhandle, west of the Big Bend, is a different coast and is not covered by it.
This is a pattern, not a forecast. The lab that watches this says plainly that predicting seaweed on an individual beach is difficult or impossible — whether it comes ashore depends on winds, tides and currents nobody can call ahead. The bulletins track how much is out there and look about a month on.
From the Sargassum Watch System, the Optical Oceanography Lab at the USF College of Marine Science. Read the current bulletin for this month's outlook.
About this reading
The satellite record for the water off Vanderbilt 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.