Texas Gulf Coast
Aransas Pass Water Temperature
Shallow mangrove maze, marked kayak trails, and Redfish Bay flats too skinny for most boats.
That is about 5°F warmer than average for this time of year, and holding steady over the last two weeks. The October average here is 81°F.
Updated Saturday, October 3 — sea-surface temperature modeled for Aransas Pass by Open-Meteo.
Out in the open Gulf, NOAA buoy 42002 — 248 miles offshore — is reading 86°F. Deep water offshore runs cooler than the shallows in summer and warmer in winter, so it won't match the beach.
For swimming
Very warm
Bath-warm. Pleasant, though it stops being much relief from the heat of the day.
For fishing
Hot — fish the edges of the day
Early and late is the play. Through the middle of the day fish drop into deeper channels and passes where there's moving water and more oxygen.
The last two weeks
Daily average sea-surface temperature, °F.
Aransas Pass water temperature by month
Averaged from 3 years of daily sea-surface temperature (2023–2025). The range column is the coolest and warmest daily average recorded in that month over the period — a guide to how much any given year can differ, not a record high and low.
| Month | Average | Range | Swimming |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60°F | 53–67°F | Bracing |
| February | 61°F | 58–66°F | Bracing |
| March | 67°F | 61–72°F | Bracing |
| April | 73°F | 70–78°F | Cool but comfortable |
| May | 80°F | 75–85°F | Warm |
| June | 85°F | 82–87°F | Very warm |
| July | 86°F | 84–87°F | Very warm |
| August | 87°F | 85–89°F | Very warm |
| September | 86°F | 82–88°F | Very warm |
| Octobernow | 81°F | 75–86°F | Warm |
| November | 74°F | 65–80°F | Cool but comfortable |
| December | 66°F | 60–73°F | Bracing |
Warmest on average in August at 87°F; coolest in January at 60°F.
The water at Aransas Pass
What sets Aransas Pass apart from the rest of the Coastal Bend is how much of its water is too shallow for a boat and perfect for a kayak. The Lighthouse Lakes are a maze of mangrove islands, cuts, and grass flats laced with marked paddling trails, and they hold redfish and trout in water a skiff would never reach. Redfish Bay itself is a state scientific area where prop scarring rules protect the seagrass, so poling, drifting, and wading are the way people fish it. Wind decides everything — a calm morning turns the flats into sight-fishing water and a hard southeast day turns them into chop and mud. Winter drops the water level and pushes fish off the flats into the deeper channels and basins.
Redfish Bay & the Lighthouse Lakes
What moves the water temperature here
The Gulf shelf off this coast is shallow, which is why the water swings so much more between summer and winter than open ocean at the same latitude does. Shallow water heats fast and gives that heat up fast: a single strong winter cold front can pull the inshore bays several degrees down in a couple of days, while the beaches a mile offshore barely move. Wind direction matters too — a sustained offshore breeze can pull cooler water up from below and drop the beach temperature noticeably in a morning.
Inshore bays, canals and flats run warmer than the beach through the summer and colder through the winter, for the same reason. The reading above is for the open water at Aransas Pass; expect the back bays to be a few degrees either side of it depending on the season.
Common questions
- What is the water temperature at Aransas Pass right now?
- The water at Aransas Pass is currently about 86°F (30°C). The October average here is 81°F.
- Is the water warm enough to swim at Aransas Pass in October?
- October averages 81°F at Aransas Pass, which most people would call warm. About as good as it gets — warm enough to stay in for hours without getting chilled.
- When is the water warmest at Aransas Pass?
- August is the warmest month on average at 87°F, and January the coolest at 60°F. 6 months of the year average 75°F or above.
- Why does the water temperature change so quickly here?
- The Gulf shelf off this coast is shallow, so it heats and cools far faster than deep open ocean. A strong winter cold front can pull the inshore water down several degrees in a couple of days, and a sustained offshore wind can drop beach temperatures in a single morning by pulling cooler water up from below.