Clearwater Beach Live Webcams and How to Read Conditions From Them

Which Clearwater Beach webcam should you watch?

Pick the cam by the question you want answered. The city's cams are the best for conditions. The rooftop bar cams sit higher and see wider, so they're better for sunsets than for judging surf. Every cam in this table is continuous live video, not a still photo that refreshes. We link to each owner's own page rather than a YouTube address, because the owner's page keeps working when a stream restarts under a new one.

"Live on YouTube" means the stream's public YouTube listing showed it broadcasting when we checked on October 4, 2026. Cams go dark for maintenance, power cuts and storms, so read that column as a snapshot.

What do the Pier 60 and main beach cams show?

Three cams cover the stretch most visitors care about, from Frenchy's Rockaway Grill south past Pier 60.

City of Clearwater, Lifeguard Headquarters cam

Check this one before you drive over. The city says it faces west from Lifeguard Headquarters and is there to monitor "the beach crowds, weather, and the gulf." Since it looks straight out to sea, it's the best cam on the beach for judging chop and whitecaps and for seeing how full the sand is. You'll find it on the city's Watch Live Video page, linked from its main beach page. Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, Pinellas County's tourism office, also carries a Clearwater Beach cam that it describes as the view "near Pier 60." The city's own warning: "In the event of inclement weather, both of the live beach cameras may take several minutes to load or be unavailable at times."

Jimmy's Crow's Nest cams at Pier House 60

Jimmy's Crow's Nest is the rooftop bar on the 10th floor of the Pier House 60 Marina Hotel, 101 Coronado Dr., next to Clearwater Marina and across from Pier 60. The hotel's Live Camera page carries two streams from the roof, titled "Sunrise" and "Sunset View," and promises views "over the Clearwater Beach marina and the Gulf of Mexico." The titles and the sun suggest the sunrise feed looks east toward the marina and the sunset feed looks west toward the Gulf. Both run on the YouTube channel Clearwater Beach Live Cams. Camera aggregator sites rebroadcast the Pier House 60 view too; the hotel's page is the original.

Ten floors up gives you a wide frame. That's great for a sunset and fine for a rough read on crowds, but small waves are hard to judge from that height. For sunset, look up the Clearwater Beach sunset time and open the stream about 20 minutes before.

Frenchy's Clearwater Beach Cam

Frenchy's runs an HD stream "from atop the famous Frenchy's Rockaway Grill," its beachfront restaurant at 7 Rockaway St., north of Pier 60. It's on the Frenchy's website and the Frenchy's YouTube channel. The current broadcast has been running since September 2020, far longer than any other stream here. It faces the Gulf, so it doubles as a sunset cam, and it covers the beach north of the pier. The WebCams menu on Frenchy's site also has a "Peek Inside Rockaway" page for the restaurant itself.

Is there a live cam of the roundabout, causeway or marina?

Yes. The city's roundabout cam sits at the Clearwater Beach roundabout and faces northeast, and the city pitches it for watching "the traffic, crowds, and weather in real time." Open it on a Saturday in March or before the Fourth of July fireworks and you'll know whether cars are stacked up on the Memorial Causeway before you join them. If the roundabout is jammed, our guide to beach garages and city lots covers when they fill, or you can skip the drive and take the trolley.

For the marina, the Jimmy's Crow's Nest sunrise stream at Pier House 60 is the closest thing to a marina cam. Pier House 60's description puts the marina in the frame. Since the beach faces west, see where to watch the sunrise in person if you'd rather see it live.

Down the beach, Jimmy's Fish House, 521 S. Gulfview Blvd., posts two streams on its web cams page: a "Sunset Webcam" and a "Dock Webcam" aimed at its dining dock, where the restaurant says you can watch "the boats passing by." Open the dock cam if you want boats on screen.

Which cams cover the south end, Sand Key and nearby beaches?

South of Pier 60, two rooftop cams sit at The Edge Hotel, 505 S. Gulfview Blvd.:

• Jimmy's on the Edge, the hotel's 10th-floor rooftop bar, posts a sunrise and a sunset stream on its web cams page. The bar describes its view as taking in the Gulf of Mexico, the Intracoastal Waterway and Clearwater Beach.
• The Edge Hotel stream is on the hotel's homepage, which bills it as a live "Clearwater Beach Marina & Gulf Camera." The same page also embeds the two Jimmy's on the Edge streams.

Sand Key: as of October 2026 we found no public webcam aimed at Sand Key Park, either from Pinellas County or from a Sand Key business. If one turns up, we'll add it. Until then the Jimmy's on the Edge cams are the closest view.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater's beach webcams page also lists three cams on neighboring beaches. They're handy if you're deciding between Clearwater and a quieter beach nearby:

How do you read crowds, surf and weather from a webcam?

Use the city's west-facing cam for these checks. The rooftop cams are too high to judge surf.

• Crowds. Look at the sand behind the rental chairs, not the water's edge. If the open sand back there is filling in by mid-morning, the nearest lots probably are too. Leave earlier or plan to park farther out.
• Whitecaps. On the National Weather Service's Beaufort scale, "fairly frequent white horses" (whitecaps) show up in a moderate breeze of 11 to 16 knots, about 13 to 18 mph. Lots of whitecaps means a windy, choppy day, the kind that can bring a yellow or red flag and stirred-up water. Hardly any usually means a calm Gulf and a better day to snorkel or paddleboard. For kiters, steady whitecaps can signal good wind for kiteboarding.
• Wave lines. Count the lines of breaking waves between the sand and the horizon. More lines, bigger surf, and more reason to swim near a staffed tower.
• Storms. A cam only shows weather that has already arrived. A darkening sky on either city cam is a cue to open radar, and radar is what you should decide on. In summer, see when summer storms usually hit by the hour.
• Water color. Brown or reddish water can hint at red tide or runoff after heavy rain, but a cam can't tell you which. Our guide to what murky or brown water usually means covers the common causes. Check the FWC and Department of Health links below.

Where do you check today's flag, red tide, radar and water temperature?

These are the official sources. All are free and none needs an account. Pair them with the cam you like for a quick morning check.

If you'd rather call, the FWC red tide hotline, 866-300-9399, plays recorded statewide conditions any time. For what the counts mean for swimmers, see the red tide guide. For what the NOAA reading will feel like, see the water temperature guide.

Why is the Clearwater Beach cam not working?

Usually one of three reasons:

• Weather. The city says its two cams "may take several minutes to load or be unavailable" in bad weather, which is exactly when you want them. Keep a backup open.
• A restarted stream. When a YouTube live stream stops and restarts, it gets a new address, and saved links to the old one die. Go through the owner's page (the links in the table above), since that's where the new stream gets posted.
• Storm damage, outages or maintenance. A hurricane or a long power cut can knock beachfront cams offline for days or longer. If every cam on the beach is down at once, check for a storm or outage, and see is Clearwater Beach open for recovery status.

If you only bookmark one backup, make it Frenchy's. It's the longest-running stream on this list.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official Clearwater Beach webcam?

Yes, two. The City of Clearwater runs a cam at Lifeguard Headquarters facing west over the Gulf and one at the Clearwater Beach roundabout facing northeast. Both are on the city's Watch Live Video of Clearwater Beach page. The other cams on the beach are run by hotels and restaurants.

Is there a Pier 60 live cam?

We found no public cam mounted on the pier itself. Visit St. Pete-Clearwater carries a Clearwater Beach view it describes as "near Pier 60," and Jimmy's Crow's Nest, on the roof of Pier House 60 across from the pier, streams the sunset over the Gulf. For hours, fees and fishing, see the Pier 60 guide.

Which Clearwater Beach cam is best for watching the sunset?

The Jimmy's Crow's Nest sunset view at Pier House 60 for the area around Pier 60, Jimmy's on the Edge for south of the pier, and Frenchy's Rockaway Grill for the beach north of it. All three look out over the Gulf, which lies west of the beach.

Can I see the beach flag color on a webcam?

Not reliably. The flags are too small at stream resolution. Use the Beach Conditions Reporting System at visitbeaches.org, which the city links for flag status, along with the NWS Tampa Bay rip current forecast. Lifeguards are on duty 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Is there a webcam of the Memorial Causeway traffic?

The city's roundabout cam is the closest. It sits at the roundabout where the Memorial Causeway reaches the beach and faces northeast, so it shows the roundabout and the traffic around it.

Is there a Sand Key webcam?

We found no public cam aimed at Sand Key Park as of October 2026. The Jimmy's on the Edge and The Edge Hotel rooftop cams, south of Pier 60, are the nearest views.