How's the water today?

Wild Open Water answers one question at 23,000+ beaches, lakes and rivers across the UK, Ireland and Europe: how's the water today? Water temperature, tides at the coast, rain and river levels inland, the official bathing-water rating where the spot is monitored, and reports from swimmers who were there. Today is free for everyone, with or without an account.

Wild shows you what the agency published, and leaves the decision to you. Each monitored spot is linked to the body that publishes its rating: the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales, SEPA in Scotland, DAERA in Northern Ireland, the EPA in Ireland, and the European Environment Agency elsewhere. The first five publish sample results. The EEA publishes an annual classification only — no samples, and the season shown can be more than a year old, so we label it. England and Wales also publish a daily pollution-risk forecast, as do about a third of Scotland’s monitored sites; Northern Ireland, Ireland and the rest of Europe publish none. If a spot is not a designated bathing water, no agency publishes a rating for it, and we say so rather than guess.

Search by name or place, or open the map. There are 23,000+ spots — beaches, lakes and rivers across the UK, Ireland and Europe. Every one has its own page: today’s conditions, the official water quality where the spot is monitored, and any reports swimmers have left.

Weather, marine and wave forecasts come from Open-Meteo; satellite sea-surface temperature from the Copernicus Marine Service; tide predictions from WorldTides. River levels and flow come from the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and SEPA. Bathing-water quality comes from six official agencies — the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, SEPA, DAERA, EPA Ireland and the European Environment Agency — all classifying to the same Bathing Water Directive standard. Swimmers fill in the rest with 40,000+ reports, each stamped with the conditions at the time.

Conditions and tides refresh from the forecast providers on a schedule, seven days ahead. Water quality moves at the agency’s pace, not ours: samples appear when the agency publishes them, the daily pollution-risk forecast updates daily where it exists, and the European annual classification changes once a year. Everything is shown with its date so you can judge how current it is.

It depends on the water, and we don't pretend otherwise. At the coast, sea-surface temperature is measured by satellite. At a lake it is modelled, so we show a range rather than a single figure. At a river we show a temperature band rather than a number, because the method behind it has no published calibration and a decimal point would be false precision. Every reading says which of the three it is.

Yes. Create a free account and share conditions, tips and updates at any swim spot. Reports carry a timestamp, and we stamp them with the conditions at the time, so other swimmers can judge how current your intel is.

Today is free at every spot, along with all the water quality information, and you do not need an account for it. A free account adds saved spots, water quality alerts in the app, and posting to the community. Wild Pro (£3.99 a month or £29.99 a year, no trial) opens days two to seven of the forecast — conditions, temperature and tides.