Paradise Coast
Everglades City Water Temperature
Chokoloskee Bay, Indian Key Pass, and the top of the Ten Thousand Islands.
That is about 2°F warmer than average for this time of year, and cooling over the last two weeks. The October average here is 82°F.
Updated Friday, October 2 — sea-surface temperature modeled for Everglades City by Open-Meteo.
Out in the open Gulf, NOAA buoy 42023 — 106 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.
Everglades City 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 | 68°F | 62–73°F | Cool but comfortable |
| February | 73°F | 65–78°F | Cool but comfortable |
| March | 76°F | 70–80°F | Warm |
| April | 79°F | 75–83°F | Warm |
| May | 85°F | 79–89°F | Very warm |
| June | 86°F | 84–90°F | Very warm |
| July | 89°F | 85–91°F | Bath water |
| August | 89°F | 85–92°F | Bath water |
| September | 87°F | 84–90°F | Very warm |
| Octobernow | 82°F | 76–87°F | Very warm |
| November | 76°F | 71–80°F | Warm |
| December | 70°F | 64–76°F | Cool but comfortable |
Warmest on average in July at 89°F; coolest in January at 68°F.
The water at Everglades City
Everglades City and Chokoloskee sit at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, a mangrove wilderness running south for forty miles with no roads, no lights, and very few people. Snook and redfish live in the creeks, the oyster bars, and the river mouths; tarpon roll in the passes and along the beaches through the warm months; and black drum and sheepshead move into the bays as it cools. Indian Key Pass is the marked way out to the Gulf, and beyond the markers a saved GPS track and a rising tide are worth more than horsepower. This is also the north end of the Wilderness Waterway, so paddlers and chickee campers read the same tide tables the guides do. Summer storms build over the Glades and push west without much warning.
the Ten Thousand Islands & Chokoloskee Bay
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 Everglades City; 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 Everglades City right now?
- The water at Everglades City is currently about 84°F (29°C). The October average here is 82°F.
- Is the water warm enough to swim at Everglades City in October?
- October averages 82°F at Everglades City, which most people would call very warm. Bath-warm. Pleasant, though it stops being much relief from the heat of the day.
- When is the water warmest at Everglades City?
- July is the warmest month on average at 89°F, and January the coolest at 68°F. 9 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.