canIswim

Sea temperature and swimming season, by city

When the sea is warm enough to swim, for 1,642 coastal cities across 196 countries — and what you will want to be wearing.

There is no objective "warm enough"

Every site that publishes sea temperatures picks a threshold and calls it swimmable. There isn't one: a Norwegian and a Spaniard genuinely disagree, and neither is wrong. So every page here shows the season at four different thresholds and states which one the headline uses (19°C), rather than pretending the choice is a fact.

One threshold is not a preference. Below about 15°C, cold shock is a real physiological risk for anyone unacclimatised, and that is marked separately.

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