As the final school days wrap up and summer crowds begin filling the sand along the Eastern Shore, a new tool is in place in Virginia Beach to support the National Weather Service (NWS) rip current forecasts and Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service beach safety decision-making this season.
On Thursday, June 18 MARACOOS joined partners Virginia Beach Lifesaving Services (VBLS), National Weather Service (NWS), Harrison Group, and members of Virginia Beach City Management for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the installation of a new webcamera at the Hampton Inn Virginia Beach-Oceanfront South.
Rip currents remain the leading hazard for beachgoers across the United States. Many visitors to the sandy shores are familiar with the green, yellow, red, and sometimes purple flags lining lifeguard stands that signal beach conditions. Beach warnings are determined by the local beach safety services through observations and the rip current advisory forecasts issued by the NWS.
Webcameras are a low-cost tool that provide continuous visual observations, helping communities monitor not just rip currents but also coastal hazards, flood conditions, and shoreline changes. The camera at Virginia Beach will support the VBLS by enabling continuous monitoring of surf conditions for beachgoers and providing real-time data to support the NWS rip current forecasts. Improving forecasts for rip current conditions can ensure more accurate advisories, helping lifeguards and beachgoers make more informed decisions when entering the water.
In addition, scientists will be working to train AI to automatically detect rip currents from the camera’s imagery, making it possible to flag dangerous conditions during hours when direct observation isn’t possible. While AI detection of rip currents remains experimental, initial results are promising and signal that continuing to add more training data could help webcameras support NWS forecasts as well as improve NOAA’s National Rip Current Model to better predict rip current conditions. This camera is a reminder that ocean data is not just for scientists and researchers but can be used by communities as a tool to inform people when conditions may be unsafe to enter the water.
“Staying safe in the ocean is the best way to enjoy a great day at the beach. The number one danger for swimmers on surf beaches is Rip Currents. The MARACOOS project promises to enhance rip current forecasting giving guards, and the public, more information to prevent drowning fatalities and injuries. The Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service looks forward to the newest camera from the MARACOOS project providing lifesaving information our guards can use daily.” Tom Gill, Chief of VBLS.
The installation of the MARACOOS Virginia Beach webcam was a collaborative effort with the NWS, VBLS, and the Harrison Group and is part of the national Webcam Coastal Ocean Observation System (WebCOOS), a community-supported coastal webcam network overseen by SECOORA. Imagery captured from the WebCOOS cameras help monitor environmental changes and provide critical data to accurately forecast coastal hazards that affect people and communities.
The livestream and data feed can be accessed from both MARACOOS OceansMap as well as WebCOOS.
The success of this installation is due to the collaborative efforts of MARACOOS partners:
Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service
As MARACOOS continues to expand its coastal webcam network, organizations interested in participating in this collaborative effort should reach out to: kirstin@maracoos.org.
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