# NOAA Marine Conditions, Tides, Water Temp & Currents API (`richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api`) Actor

Extract real-time sea water temperature, high/low tide predictions, water levels, and coastal winds from NOAA oceanographic stations by GPS coordinates, city, or station ID.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Jiani Peng](https://apify.com/richigga) (community)
- **Categories:** Travel, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## NOAA Marine Conditions, Tides, Sea Water Temp & Currents API

An autonomous, production-ready Apify Actor that extracts real-time and forecasted oceanographic conditions from official **NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)** coastal observation stations.

Query by **GPS coordinates** (automatic nearest station discovery), **station ID**, or **city/harbor name** (e.g. Miami, Key West, San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, Boston).

***

### 🌊 Features

- **Real-Time Sea Water Temperature**: Instant surface water temperature in Celsius (°C) or Fahrenheit (°F) with daily minimum & maximum tracking.
- **High & Low Tide Predictions**: Accurate daily High (H) and Low (L) tide times, water heights (MLLW datum), and automatic detection of the next upcoming tide.
- **Water Level & Surge**: Real-time water height observations against standard nautical chart datums.
- **Coastal Wind & Meteorology**: Wind speed (m/s or knots), wind direction (degrees & cardinal), gust speeds, and air temperature.
- **Nearest Station Auto-Discovery**: Provide any `{"lat": 25.76, "lon": -80.19}` pair and the Actor automatically finds and queries the closest active NOAA ocean station within your chosen search radius.
- **Agent-Ready & Structured**: Clean, normalized JSON output designed for AI agents, travel platforms, diving/surfing apps, and maritime logistics.

***

### 📥 Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `locations` | `Array` | `["Miami, FL", "Key West, FL", "San Francisco, CA"]` | List of locations to query. Accepts City/Harbor strings, Station IDs (e.g. `"8723214"`), or GPS coordinate objects `{"lat": 25.76, "lon": -80.19}`. |
| `products` | `Array` | `["water_temperature", "tides", "water_level", "wind", "air_temperature"]` | Specific data products to retrieve. |
| `units` | `String` | `"metric"` | `"metric"` (°C, meters, m/s) or `"english"` (°F, feet, knots). |
| `timeZone` | `String` | `"gmt"` | `"gmt"` (UTC) or `"lst_ldt"` (Local Standard / Daylight Time). |
| `date` | `String` | `"today"` | `"today"`, `"latest"`, or `"YYYYMMDD"` date. |
| `maxDistanceKm` | `Integer` | `100` | Max search distance in km for nearest station discovery. |
| `includeRawData` | `Boolean` | `false` | Include 6-minute raw time-series data points. |

***

### 📤 Output Format

```json
{
  "station": {
    "id": "8723214",
    "name": "Virginia Key, Biscayne Bay",
    "state": "FL",
    "lat": 25.7314,
    "lon": -80.1619,
    "distanceKm": 4.5,
    "timezone": "EST",
    "noaaStationUrl": "https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stationhome.html?id=8723214"
  },
  "units": "Metric (°C, m, m/s)",
  "timeZone": "gmt",
  "queryDate": "today",
  "currentConditions": {
    "waterTemperature": {
      "value": 31.6,
      "unit": "°C",
      "timestamp": "2026-08-20 11:06",
      "minToday": 31.2,
      "maxToday": 31.8
    },
    "wind": {
      "speed": 4.2,
      "directionDeg": 110,
      "directionCard": "ESE",
      "gust": 5.6,
      "unit": "m/s",
      "timestamp": "2026-08-20 11:06"
    },
    "airTemperature": {
      "value": 29.4,
      "unit": "°C",
      "timestamp": "2026-08-20 11:06"
    }
  },
  "tides": {
    "datum": "MLLW",
    "highTides": [
      { "time": "2026-08-20 07:02", "height": 0.605 },
      { "time": "2026-08-20 19:52", "height": 0.608 }
    ],
    "lowTides": [
      { "time": "2026-08-20 00:59", "height": 0.18 },
      { "time": "2026-08-20 13:28", "height": 0.099 }
    ],
    "nextTide": {
      "type": "Low Tide",
      "time": "2026-08-20 13:28",
      "height": 0.099
    },
    "totalTideEvents": 4
  },
  "waterLevel": {
    "currentHeight": 0.35,
    "unit": "m",
    "datum": "MLLW",
    "timestamp": "2026-08-20 11:06"
  },
  "status": "SUCCESS",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-08-20T11:10:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### 🤖 AI Agent Integration (LLM Function Calling)

This Actor is pre-optimized for consumption by LLMs and Autonomous Agents:

```typescript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor('your-username/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api').call({
  locations: [{ lat: 25.7617, lon: -80.1918 }],
  products: ['water_temperature', 'tides'],
  units: 'metric',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].currentConditions.waterTemperature);
```

***

### 💰 Unit Economics & Monetization

- **Pricing Model**: Pay Per Event (`$0.003` per queried location/station)
- **External Cost**: `$0.00` (Official NOAA open data, public domain)
- **Compute Runtime**: `< 400ms` (~0.00008 Apify CU)
- **Gross Margin**: `> 96%`

***

### 📄 License & Attribution

Data sourced from NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS). Public domain US Government data.
Actor developed autonomously under Apache-2.0.

# Actor input Schema

## `locations` (type: `array`):

List of locations to query. Can be GPS coordinate objects (e.g. {"lat": 25.76, "lon": -80.19}), station IDs (e.g. "8723214"), or search names (e.g. "Miami, FL", "Key West, FL", "San Francisco, CA", "Boston, MA").

## `products` (type: `array`):

Oceanographic and meteorological products to fetch.

## `units` (type: `string`):

Measurement units for temperature, height, and speed.

## `timeZone` (type: `string`):

Timezone for timestamps and tide predictions.

## `date` (type: `string`):

Target date or mode. Allowed: 'today', 'latest', 'recent', or a date in 'YYYYMMDD' format.

## `maxDistanceKm` (type: `integer`):

Maximum search distance in kilometers when locating the nearest coastal station to GPS coordinates or city.

## `includeRawData` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, includes the full 6-minute interval data points in addition to the normalized summaries.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "locations": [
    "Miami, FL",
    "Key West, FL",
    "San Francisco, CA"
  ],
  "products": [
    "water_temperature",
    "tides",
    "water_level",
    "wind",
    "air_temperature"
  ],
  "units": "metric",
  "timeZone": "gmt",
  "date": "today",
  "maxDistanceKm": 100,
  "includeRawData": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `output` (type: `string`):

Oceanographic conditions summary

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "locations": [
        "Miami, FL",
        "Key West, FL",
        "San Francisco, CA"
    ],
    "date": "today"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "locations": [
        "Miami, FL",
        "Key West, FL",
        "San Francisco, CA",
    ],
    "date": "today",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "locations": [
    "Miami, FL",
    "Key West, FL",
    "San Francisco, CA"
  ],
  "date": "today"
}' |
apify call richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,richigga/noaa-marine-conditions-tides-api"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qlto27D3J47RFNhrD/builds/IFC24K4kAhqrcPbxu/openapi.json