Shorely

How Shorely works

Shorely ranks all 30 Jersey Shore beaches from Sandy Hook to Cape May based on real-time conditions. Every beach gets a ShoreScore from 0 to 100. Higher is better.

What goes into the ShoreScore

The ShoreScore is a weighted blend of five real-time factors. I chose these weights based on what beachgoers actually care about, with water quality and weather doing most of the heavy lifting because those are the things that ruin a day fastest.

• Water quality — 30%. Estimated from recent rainfall, the same primary signal NJDEP uses to predict bacterial advisories. More rain in the last 72 hours means more runoff, and lower confidence in clean water.
• Weather — 25%. Temperature, feels-like, wind, gusts, cloud cover, precipitation, and UV. The ideal beach day is 75–85°F, sunny, and under 10 mph wind. I penalize from there.
• Surf — 15%. Wave height, period, and swell direction. I score the sweet spot of 2–4 ft waves with longer periods (cleaner, more organized water) highest.
• Crowd — 15%. Less crowded = higher score. I blend three signals when available: live user reports, Google's Popular Times data, and a smart heuristic based on day of week, time of day, weather, and season.
• Parking — 15%. A heuristic based on each beach's parking capacity (residential streets vs. casino garages = wildly different baselines), the current crowd estimate, and time of day.

Where the data comes from

Every factor is real data from public, free sources. No black boxes.

• Weather — Open-Meteo, using NOAA's HRRR model (the same high-resolution model the National Weather Service publishes for North America). Refreshed every 10 minutes.
• Surf & swell — Open-Meteo Marine API, sourced from the German Weather Service ICON Wave model.
• Tides — NOAA Tides & Currents. I use the three primary NJ stations (Sandy Hook, Atlantic City, Cape May) and snap each beach to its closest one.
• Water quality — Estimated from rainfall data via Open-Meteo. NJDEP's official beach monitoring runs mid-May through mid-September, Mon–Fri only. I use rainfall as a year-round proxy because that's NJDEP's own primary indicator for closures. I'll integrate live NJDEP data when it's in season.
• Crowd — Three sources, in order of priority: (1) user reports submitted directly through Shorely, (2) Google's Popular Times "Live" data when available, (3) a heuristic based on beach popularity, day of week, time of day, weather, and holidays.
• Webcams — Linked from NJBeachCams, the public-facing service from Coastal Camera Network.
• Parking — Heuristic only. No NJ town publishes real-time parking availability. I estimate based on each beach's parking type (residential vs. metered streets vs. paid lots vs. casino garages) combined with the current crowd estimate.

What Shorely is not

Shorely is a recommendation tool, not a guarantee. Weather forecasts can be wrong. Beach conditions can change faster than my 10-minute refresh. Always check official advisories before swimming, and use common sense. I am not affiliated with NJDEP, NOAA, the National Park Service, or any Jersey Shore town.

About the weather data: Shorely pulls weather forecasts from NOAA's HRRR model via Open-Meteo. Different weather services (Apple, Google, AccuWeather, Weather.com) blend multiple models and may show readings 2–5°F different from Shorely at any given moment. This is normal model variance, not a bug — there is no single "true" temperature for a coastal location at any given second. Always trust your eyes and the forecast on your phone for final decisions.

About badge prices: All beach badge prices listed on Shorely reflect 2026 published rates as of May 2026, sourced primarily from the Patch Jersey Shore Beach Badge Guide and individual town websites. Towns can change prices mid-season, run discounts, or adjust senior/military/youth rates. Always confirm pricing with the town directly before purchasing. Shorely is not responsible for outdated or incorrect pricing displayed.

Why I built this

Picking the right Jersey Shore beach on a given day used to mean checking five different sites: weather here, water advisories there, tides on a government PDF, parking notes on a town's Facebook page. Shorely brings all of that into one ranked list so you can answer one question fast: which beach is worth it today?

I'm Thomas Tavernite, an independent NJ developer running this as a one-person project. No ads, no investors, no data reselling. Built by someone who actually goes to these beaches.

Privacy

Shorely doesn't collect personal data. We don't run ads, sell data, or use trackers beyond standard analytics for understanding aggregate site traffic. Contact: thomas@shorely.xyz

Have feedback?

Notice bad data, a missing beach, or a feature you'd love? Email me at thomas@shorely.xyz or DM on Instagram, TikTok, or X.