The coastal water temperatures on these Web pages are climatological averages based on observations from NOAA/National Ocean Service (NOS) tide stations and NOAA/National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys. These average water temperatures were computed from long-period records ranging from several years to several decades depending on how long observations have been taken at a given station. Although ocean conditions vary from year to year, coastal water temperatures are less variable than air temperatures. Averages can provide useful information for planning beach activities such as swimming or fishing.