Long Island’s South Shore beach weather gets it own webpage

Along with snacks, chairs, lotions and umbrellas, Long Island beachgoers now have another element to help make for a successful seaside visit.

A beach webpage featuring water temperatures, surf height, rip current and ultraviolet risks — all targeted to individual South Shore ocean beaches — is available on the National Weather Service’s Upton office’s website. You can find it at weather.gov/beach/okx.

Clicking on the map’s ribbon running along the South Shore brings up data including water temperature, surf height, rip current and ultraviolet risk for the general vicinity, along with a link to radar for monitoring any beach-unfriendly weather.

More focused data is found by clicking on the beach umbrella icons.

On Friday morning, the Robert Moses umbrella entry was indicating a low risk of rip currents, a “very high” ultraviolet index (meaning very high risk for harm to unprotected skin), water temperatures of around 60 degrees, with mostly sunny skies and an expected high temperature for the day of about 67.

The idea is to offer up the kind of information a beachgoer would typically want to know before heading off to the shore, said Gary Conte, weather service meteorologist based in Upton.

In an “experimental” phase, the page is expected to be further enhanced, he said, with data on North Shore beaches, as well as modifications based on suggestions and other feedback from the public.

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Visit weather.gov/beach/ for a link to the comments survey.