To develop a Virtual Beach (VB) model, one needs historical data on water quality from two or more beach seasons, together with potentially related environmental conditions, such as stream discharge, antecedent rainfall, wave height, waterfowl, etc. Depending on the beach, many if not all of these data will be available online, for free.
Water Quality & Beach Conditions
Historical water quality can be downloaded from EPA’s BEACON website – or from the state beach websites listed below. Depending on the state, field-collected sanitary survey data, such as turbidity, algae levels and gulls, may also be available. Note: If you have sanitary survey data for your beach, it is to your advantage to upload them to your state’s beach website. This will make building and maintaining VB models significantly easier.
- Illinois Beach Guard Viewable tables of coli data. Single-day summaries of sanitary survey results.
- Indiana Beach Guard Viewable tables of coli data. Single-day summaries of sanitary survey results.
- Michigan Beach Guard Viewable tables of coli data. Single-day summaries of sanitary survey results.
- Minnesota Lake Superior Beach Monitoring Downloadable tables of coli + some sanitary survey data.
- New York: No state beach website. (Use EPA’s BEACONor request from counties.)
- Ohio Beach Guard: Viewable tables of colidata. Single-day summaries of sanitary survey results.
- Pennsylvania: No state website. (Use BEACONor request from Erie County.)
- Wisconsin Beach HealthDownloadable tables of coli + sanitary survey data.
Where to Get Your Data
If you are getting data in the field, you can just go to the beach to collect it. If you are getting your data online, there are a variety of resources you can use. Although there isn’t one correct data source, you do want to make sure the data source you use has both historic data you can use to develop your model and current data, or real time data, you can use to make daily predictions. The longer the data source is available in the past, the more data you will have available to build your model.
Try to pick data sources you know will be reliable such as state, federal, and university data sources. If your data source goes away or data collection methods change, , you will need to find comparable data or rebuild your model.
For online data sources here’s a list of places you may start looking for information:
- Water temperatures (real-time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averaged)
- NOAA Great Lakes Forecasting System – https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/
- Great Lakes Meteorological Real-Time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON) – https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/metdata/
- NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Surface Water Temperature maps – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/nrt_contour/
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Air temperatures (real time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averaged)
- NOAA National Weather Service – https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Wind speeds (real time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averaged)
- NOAA National Weather Service – https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate
- Local weather sites/stations
- GLOS Seagull Observing System – https://seagull.glos.org/map?coords=-84.1312590%2C44.1490000%2C5.5&tags=platforms%3Abuoy%2Cweather%3Awind_current%2Cwater%3A%2Cfavorite%3A%2Corg%3A
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Wind directions (real time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averaged)
- GLOS Seagull observing system – https://seagull.glos.org/map?coords=-84.1312590%2C44.1490000%2C5.5&tags=platforms%3Abuoy%2Cweather%3Awind_current%2Cwater%3A%2Cfavorite%3A%2Corg%3A
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Wave heights and wave height statistics (e.g. real-time wave heights; 6, 12, 18, or 24 hour average wave heights; maximum wave heights; wave periods; etc.)
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Wave directions
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Cloud cover percentage
- NOAA National Weather Service – https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate
- Local weather sites/stations
- Rainfall (6, 12, 24, or 48 hour totals)
- NOAA National Weather Service – https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate
- NCRFC Observed Precipitation data – https://www.weather.gov/ncrfc/LMI_NcrfcObservedPrecipitation
- Inflow from nearby tributaries (real time, 6 hour, 12 hour, 24 hour averages or totals)
- USGS Daily Streamflow Conditions – https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
- Lake levels (real time, or 6, 12, 24 hour averages)
- NOAA Lake Level Viewer – https://coast.noaa.gov/llv/
- NOO Great Lakes Water Level Monitoring Network – https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/wlevels/#monitoringNetwork
- Surface current speed (real-time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averages)
- GLOS Seagull platform – https://seagull.glos.org/map?coords=-84.1312590%2C44.1490000%2C5.5&tags=platforms%3Abuoy%2Cweather%3Awater_current%2Cwater%3A%2Cfavorite%3A
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
- Surface current direction (real-time or 6, 12, 24 hour time averages)
- GLOS Seagull platform – https://seagull.glos.org/map?coords=-84.1312590%2C44.1490000%2C5.5&tags=platforms%3Abuoy%2Cweather%3Awater_current%2Cwater%3A%2Cfavorite%3A
- NOAAPORT Realtime Great Lakes Weather Data and Marine Observations – https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/marobs/
