Wisconsin's 185 Great Lakes beaches are playgrounds for summer fun. These resources help local officials make informed decisions about beach management and help beach visitors stay safe.

---

Great Lakes Beach Hazards

This site provides beach forecasts, as well as information on water safety and quality for the Great Lakes. 
National Weather Service

View the maps... 

Virtual Beach

Virtual Beach is a free software program that enables coastal beach managers, public health professionals, and applied researchers to efficiently develop and operate water-quality models to inform beach-specific decisions on: 1) whether to issue swim advisories/closures; 2) what type of lab test (if any) to run on a given day; and 3) where and how to prioritize long-term beach remediation efforts.
Wisconsin Sea Grant/USGS/EPA/GLOS

View the tool... 

Beaches

Explore Great Lakes beaches in the Wisconsin Coastal Guide. Beach locations are available in KML format.

Integrated Nowcast/Forecast Operation System (INFOS)

INFOS combines real-time observations from various sources to create nowcasts and forecasts that help visitors to the Great Lakes make safe decisions about swimming and other water sports.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW-Madison

• View INFOS Port Washington...
• View INFOS Milwaukee...
• View INFOS Duluth...

Using Beach Safety Kits to Prevent Drowning

This case study in the Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Planning Guide helps enable communities to prevent drowning deaths at public beaches, deepen the public’s understanding of dangerous currents and waves, and share the tools, data sources, evaluation frameworks and outreach materials required to effectively target locations to install water safety and emergency rescue equipment.
Association of State Floodplain Managers as part of the NOAA Digital Coast Partnership

View the case study...