Sarasota Coast
Siesta Key Beach Cam
Live look at Siesta Key Beach — the quartz sand, the surf, and the crowd.
Siesta Key Beach
Right now at Siesta Key
- Air temp
- 68°F
- Wind
- N 7 mph
- Sky
- clear
- Next tide
- Low 5:07 AM tomorrow
Today runs 66–81°F with a 1% chance of rain. Sunset is at 5:42 PM.
Conditions from Open-Meteo and NOAA, refreshed through the day. The camera itself is a live feed from its operator.
Which fish look best today at Siesta Key
The same day scores differently for each fish: water temperature, wind, tide and seas count differently for a snook than for a sheepshead. Today’s read for Siesta Key, species by species.
Best bet: Snook.
- Snook89Prime
79°F water is right in the snook range.
Tide: 2.2 ft range · 2 in daylight
- Redfish88Prime
79°F water is right in the redfish range.
Tide: 2.2 ft range · 2 in daylight
Where to look
Oyster bars, grass flats and mangrove shorelines; they push shallow on a rising tide.
Best redfish spots today → - Spotted seatrout87Prime
79°F water is a little warm for trout; the bite starts to ease. Still warming, which pushes it further past the range.
Wind: 6 mph N, gusts 17
Where to look
Grass flats and pothole edges; deeper holes and canals when it's cold.
Best trout spots today → - Tarpon73Good
79°F water is right in the tarpon range.
Tide: 2.2 ft range · 2 in daylight
Better Wed: 93
- Spanish mackerel73Good
79°F water is right in the Spanish mackerel range.
Wind: 6 mph N, gusts 17
Better Wed: 94
Where to look
Open runs along beaches and passes, on clean, moving water.
Best Spanish mackerel spots today → - Sheepshead70Good
79°F water is warm for sheepshead. Fish early, late and where current moves. Still warming, which pushes it further past the range.
Wind: 6 mph N, gusts 17
Where to look
Pilings, docks, oyster bars and rock — anything that grows barnacles.
Best sheepshead spots today →
Scores conditions for each fish, not where they are or when a run starts. Water temperature is today’s reading applied to the whole week, so a cold front further out won’t show here until the water follows. Temperature ranges are rules of thumb for Florida inshore water; the snook range is from published research.
About Siesta Key Beach
Siesta Key Beach turns up near the top of nearly every ranking of American beaches, and the reason is underfoot: the sand is close to pure quartz, bright white and cool even in August, ground down over millennia rather than made of shell. The beach faces west with a very gentle slope, so the surf is usually small and the water clear when the wind is light. It is also one of the busiest beaches on the Gulf coast, which makes a live look before you leave the house genuinely worth the ten seconds.
What this camera is good for
- Water clarity and how big the surf is running
- Crowd and parking levels before you drive over
- Sunset, and the Sunday drum circle at the south end
- Whether the afternoon storms have started building
Full conditions for Siesta Key
Common questions
- Is the Siesta Key Beach camera live?
- Yes, it is a live stream running 24 hours a day. If it looks dark, it is night at the camera.
- Does it cost anything to watch?
- No. Salty Forecast is completely free — no ads, no account, no paid tier, and nothing on this page is behind a sign-up.
- What are the tides at Siesta Key today?
- Today's high and low tide times for Siesta Key are on the tide chart page, drawn from the NOAA station at Siesta Key, Big Sarasota Pass. Tide state changes what the beach looks like on camera — at low water the beach is at its widest.
- Why does the camera look hazy or dark?
- Live cameras sit outdoors: rain on the lens, salt spray, fog and low light all affect the picture. Night views are lit only by whatever is nearby. If the feed is down entirely, that is the operator's camera rather than this page — the conditions above still update.