Rip currents have been a problem for area beaches in recent days.
Most activity across the region was at Manatee County public beaches, where lifeguards performed 136 water rescues between Wednesday and Friday of last week.
That included 36 rescues at lifeguard Stand 1, at Manatee Public Beach; 24 rescues at Stands 2 and 3, at Cortez Public Beach; 70 rescues at lifeguard stands six and seven, located at Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island; two rescues at Stand 9; and four rescues at Stand 10, according to county beach patrol captain Marshall Greene.
"It was a beautiful day out. The problem is: whenever people would enter the water, they would be into a rip current pretty quickly," said Greene, who made seven water rescues himself.
"The water environment was a bit chaotic, but our lifeguards intervened ... pulling everybody out safely, and none of these rescues resulted in medical incidents."
He also urged beachgoers to heed beach warning flags — red, yellow and green — that signal tide and surf conditions.
While beach patrol crews look at forecasts daily, Greene said, "We don't know the actual conditions until we put eyes on it, and that's when we make our determination."
While rip currents can be tricky to forecast, Rick Davis, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin, said there are some consistent patterns.
"Every county is a little bit different [but] ... the conditions that produce the most widespread rip currents [are] going to be strong southwest winds and large, very choppy seas, or a distant storm that produces a long-period swell," Davis said.
That was the case for beaches in Manatee County recently.
Last week, there was a sea breeze effect with westerly winds up to 15 mph reported by the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, as well as "a high-pressure system centered over the Gulf, which research has shown can help generate large swells that increase the probability of rip currents along the coast," according to Nicholas Grondin, an atmospheric science instructor at the University of Tampa.
While rip currents are more common during the winter months when cold fronts spur more wave action, Grondin said Florida coastlines receive consistent "perpendicular-to-the-coast" seabreeze through the summer months, which elevates the risk for rip currents.
Characteristics of a coastline, manmade or natural — like a sandbar or a pier — also influence whether a rip current develops, he said.
Beachgoers can monitor water conditions along Florida's coast by referencing this webpage tool by the National Weather Service. Some Florida counties, including Manatee, have more information available here.
If you find yourself in a rip current, officials say it's important to stay calm and float with the current until you can swim parallel to shore.
