How we rate the beaches
playasdealmeria.es does not just tell you the weather: it tells you which beach to go to and at what time. This page explains, without shortcuts, how every rating on the site is produced — and where its limits are.
The rating of each beach
Every day we classify each beach and each part of the day (morning and afternoon) as Excellent, Good, Fair or Best avoided, combining what most affects a swim: wind and gusts, waves and temperature. The least favourable factor always rules: a beach with perfect sun but strong gusts is not “on average fine” — it is windy.
Orientation matters
The same 20 km/h westerly ruins an exposed beach and barely touches a sheltered one a few kilometres away. We take into account how each beach faces the wind, so the same forecast can produce different ratings on different beaches — that is the point.
Flags: official versus guidance
On most beaches the flag shown is the official one from the Junta de Andalucía (andalucia.org), read in near real time, only while the reading is recent and during lifeguard hours. Where the municipality does not publish a flag — or outside those hours — we show a guidance flag calculated from wind, gusts and waves, and we always label it as guidance. For future days no flag is ever presented as official. Rain, storms or a red flag lower the recommendation.
Jellyfish: two separate layers
Community notices come from swimmers reporting from the beach itself, anonymously; they are shown while recent and expire on their own. They are always displayed and they order beaches within their group, but they never change the rating: the weather says whether the beach is good, and the community warns you about what the weather cannot see. A notice does not mean the beach is closed.
Official warnings
Official AEMET warnings are connected and shown whenever they exist, clearly separated from our own guidance notices.
Sources and update frequency
Weather and sea forecast from Open-Meteo; official warnings from AEMET; official flags from the Junta de Andalucía (andalucia.org); jellyfish notices from the community. Data refreshes roughly every 30 minutes.
Limits
This is a guide to help you choose, free and with no registration. It can contain errors and conditions change fast: beach signs, lifeguards and the authorities always prevail. If you spot a mistake, please tell us through the contact link in the footer.
Last revised: 2026-07-13 · Versión en español