Beautiful beaches, rich marine life, plenty of outdoor opportunities, and world-class theme parks. There is no better place to spend an adventure-filled vacation than in Florida.
With its year-round warm weather, it’s especially popular among snowbirds. But it doesn’t mean you can’t visit it in summer. You just have to be aware of one thing – the infamous sargassum seaweed.
It has been threatening Florida’s beaches for years now and has ruined many trips. We don’t want that to happen to you. Here are our tips and updates on the sargassum situation so you can plan your visit accordingly.
When is Sargassum Seaweed Season in Florida?
The sargassum season in Florida usually picks up in late spring and continues until October, with the most critical months being June, July, and August.
The eastern coast of Florida and the Florida Keys are generally more affected than the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico, which is something to consider as well when planning a vacation in Florida.
Is the Sargassum Seaweed Season 2024 in Florida Over?
According to our latest observations in the FB reporting group, the beaches across Florida seem clean and people are not reporting seaweed arrivals anymore but some of the beaches in Key West such as Fort Zachary (webcam) still have small amounts.
As of November 12, all the beaches in Florida are free of sargassum as sargassum seaweed season 2024 has finished but there has been some recent arrivals due to chnages of currents caused by hurricanes and storms.
Optical Oceanography Laboratory Maps
November 2023
As of November 12, the sargassum seaweed situation is in OFF season and based on the satellite images sargassum is only visible off the West Coast of Africa. Based on these images it’s not possible to predict outcomes for 2025 season.
September 2024
The latest Sargassum Seaweed distribution map from the end of September 2024 shows a new big formation of the Sargassum Seaweed in the Atlantic Ocean.
July 2024
The Optical Oceanography Laboratory is a research station run by the College of Marine Science at the University of Florida. They specialize in monitoring the optical properties of the ocean, including sargassum.
Thanks to the use of raw data provided by the U.S. NASA and USGS, the Optical Oceanography Laboratory can monitor the location and movement of sargassum and create predictive models.
Note: The gathered information is a general outlook of current sargassum condition and future bloom probability and therefore cannot offer precise prediction or forecast for a particular beach destination.
Facebook Monitoring Group
The best way to keep current is to follow Facebook monitoring groups. Sargassum Seaweed Florida: Daily Updates and Photo Reports has more than 11.2k members who share photos, maps, news, and live updates from around Florida. On the other hand, Key West and Florida Keys – Sargassum Seaweed Daily Updates focuses solely on the Florida Keys.
Latest Photos And Updates from Florida
October, November 2024
Despite sargassum seaweed season to be over, there were some arrivals in the October and November due to hurricanes and storms which are contributing to changes of the currents in the Caribbean Sea. But for the most part, beach in Florida have been free of sargassum seaweed.
September 2024
Floridas’s sargassum seaweed season in September was very mild and only a few places (mostly Key West) had sargassum. In the photos below you can see a couple of examples from our monitoring FB group but for the most part, the beaches remained clean.
The 2024 sargassum seaweed is slowly coming to an end and you can expect sargassum-free beaches until around February 2025. The exact dates are not possible to predict as every season differs based on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea temperatures during the winter season. High sea temperatures affect currents and those affect the seaweed arrivals.
June 2024
