Acquiring global warning data
Real-time coastal weather warnings for the USA, Europe, Australia and the Bahamas. Covering rip current warnings, gale warnings, high surf warnings, hurricane warnings, coastal flood warnings, small craft advisories and severe thunderstorm warnings. Data sourced directly from NWS (National Weather Service), MeteoAlarm, Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and Bahamas Met. Updated every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day.
I Spy Sun provides live coastal weather warnings sourced directly from official national meteorological agencies, updated every 10 minutes around the clock. Whether you are checking for a rip current warning before swimming, a gale warning before sailing, or a hurricane warning before travelling, this page gives you real-time official information in one place.
All warnings displayed are issued by official government meteorological services — not estimated or modelled by third parties. When a warning is issued, it appears on this page within 10 minutes.
| Region | Source | Warning Types Covered |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 USA — All States | National Weather Service (NWS) | Rip current warnings, high surf warnings, coastal flood warnings, gale warnings, hurricane warnings, tornado warnings, tsunami warnings, small craft advisories, beach hazard statements, severe thunderstorm warnings |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | MeteoAlarm / AEMET | Wind warnings, coastal event warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings, snow warnings, extreme heat warnings, forest fire warnings |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | MeteoAlarm / IPMA | Heavy swell warnings, strong wind warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings, fog warnings, extreme heat warnings |
| 🇫🇷 France | MeteoAlarm / Météo-France | Wind warnings, coastal warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings, snow warnings |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | MeteoAlarm | Wind warnings, coastal warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | MeteoAlarm | Wind warnings, coastal warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings, extreme heat warnings |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | MeteoAlarm | Wind warnings, coastal warnings, rain warnings, storm warnings |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) | Marine wind warnings, gale warnings, strong wind warnings, tropical cyclone warnings, tsunami warnings, hazardous surf warnings, storm force wind warnings |
| 🇧🇸 Bahamas | Bahamas Department of Meteorology | Hurricane warnings, tropical storm warnings, small craft warnings, high surf warnings, rip current warnings, rough sea warnings |
Extreme danger to life. Includes hurricane warnings, tornado warnings, tsunami warnings and tropical storm warnings. Leave the water and coastal areas immediately and follow emergency instructions.
Significant hazard. Includes gale warnings, high surf warnings, storm warnings, coastal flood warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings. Exercise extreme caution near the water.
Elevated risk. Includes rip current statements, small craft advisories, high surf advisories and beach hazard statements. Be aware, take precautions and check with local lifeguards.
Rip currents are the leading cause of beach drownings worldwide. If caught in a rip current, do not swim against it. Swim parallel to the shore until free of the current, then swim back to the beach at an angle.
A rip current warning or rip current statement is issued by the National Weather Service when dangerous rip currents are expected at beaches. Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water that pull swimmers away from shore. They can occur at any beach with breaking waves — not just during storms. When a rip current warning is active, even strong swimmers should avoid entering the water unless swimming at a lifeguarded beach.
A gale warning is issued when sustained winds of 34 to 47 knots (39 to 54 mph / 63 to 87 km/h) are expected over coastal or offshore waters. Gale warnings indicate dangerous conditions for small vessels and rough seas for swimmers and surfers. In Europe, gale warnings are issued by national meteorological services and distributed through MeteoAlarm. In Australia, gale warnings are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology.
A high surf warning is issued by the NWS when breaking wave action is expected to pose a significant hazard to life or property within the surf zone. High surf warnings are typically issued for wave heights well above normal — often 10 feet or higher depending on the location. During a high surf warning, large breaking waves, strong rip currents, and dangerous shore break make swimming extremely hazardous for all ability levels.
I Spy Sun operates a dedicated warning infrastructure running 24 hours a day on a Raspberry Pi proxy server, fetching data every 10 minutes from official government sources. Warnings are automatically classified by severity and published to this page without human intervention, ensuring the fastest possible update cycle. The system covers over 310 beach locations across the USA, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Australia and the Bahamas.
For location-specific conditions including live UV index, wave height, water temperature and wind speed, visit any of our 310+ individual beach pages. Active warnings for your beach are displayed prominently on every location page the moment they are issued.
I Spy Sun was built on a single principle: people deserve to know when it is dangerous to go near the water. Every year, thousands of people are caught off guard by rip currents, unexpected storm surges, flash flooding, sudden gale force winds and coastal wildfires. In many cases, the official warnings existed — but they never reached the people who needed them most. We built this system to change that.
Our warning infrastructure runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, on dedicated servers distributed around the world via Cloudflare's global edge network. When a meteorological agency issues a warning — whether it is the National Weather Service issuing a rip current warning for a Florida beach, the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a tropical cyclone warning for Queensland, or MeteoAlarm issuing an orange wind warning for the Balearic Islands — our system picks it up within minutes and publishes it instantly. There is no editorial delay, no human bottleneck. The warning goes straight from the meteorological agency to this page and to every affected beach location on ispysun.com.
Coastal safety is not just about the sea. Extreme weather events near the coast take many forms. Storm surges driven by hurricane-force winds can flood coastal communities within minutes. Rip currents — invisible from the shore — are the number one cause of drowning deaths at beaches worldwide, responsible for over 100 fatalities in the United States alone every year. Coastal wildfires driven by dry conditions and strong offshore winds can move faster than a person can run, cutting off beach access roads without warning. Flash flooding in coastal river valleys can turn a calm beach day into a life-threatening emergency in under an hour.
Our system monitors for all of these hazards. Beyond marine and coastal warnings, we track severe thunderstorm warnings which bring dangerous lightning to open beaches and water, tornado warnings which can affect coastal areas — particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic states — and extreme heat warnings across Europe and the Mediterranean which pose serious health risks to beach visitors, particularly the elderly and young children.
Speed and reliability are not optional when lives are at stake. I Spy Sun operates on Cloudflare's global edge network — the same infrastructure used by millions of the world's largest websites — ensuring that warning pages load in milliseconds regardless of where in the world you are accessing them. Whether you are checking conditions from a beachfront hotel in Mallorca, a surf school in the Algarve, a sailing marina in the Bahamas, or a campsite near Bondi Beach in Sydney, you receive the same fast, accurate, up-to-date warning information.
Our data pipeline fetches from official meteorological APIs every 10 minutes using dedicated proxy servers — ensuring we are never blocked by rate limits or IP restrictions that can prevent cloud services from accessing government data feeds. Warning data is cached at the edge and served globally with typical page load times under 200 milliseconds. This is professional-grade coastal safety infrastructure built to save lives.
I Spy Sun currently monitors over 310 beach locations across the USA, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Australia and the Bahamas, with new locations added regularly. Every location page shows live conditions — UV index, wave height, water temperature, wind speed and air quality — alongside any active weather warnings for that specific area. Our Digital Weatherman AI briefing synthesises all available data into a plain-English daily conditions report, helping beach visitors make informed decisions about whether to swim, surf, sail or simply enjoy the shore safely.
Because when the sea turns dangerous, you deserve to know before you get there.