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Florida Beach Warning Flags (U.S.)

Last modified: 2007-10-20 by rick wyatt
Keywords: clean boatyard | marina | boatyard | pelican | waves | beach |
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Description of the flags

On 8 June 2005 the governor of Florida amended a 2002 state law to mandate adherence to the state’s beach warning flag program on all public beaches where a warning program is utilized. According to the Department of Environmental Protection press release at www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2005/06/0608_04.htm

"Three years ago, at the request of the Florida Legislature, DEP began developing uniform safety flags and notification signs for life-guarded beaches along Florida?s coast. HB 1395 expands the existing program to more beaches, allowing use of the warning flag system on non-life-guarded beaches. In addition, the amended law eliminates confusion for beachgoers, standardizing beach flags state-wide by requiring consistency with those issued by DEP.

The uniform flags and signs, which use the colors adopted by the International Lifesaving Federation, are available to beach communities free of charge through DEP's Coastal Management Program. Flag warnings and colors are:

Green: Low hazard, calm conditions, exercise caution.
Yellow: Medium hazard, moderate surf and/or currents.
Red: High hazard, high surf and/or strong currents.
Red over Red [i.e., two red flags]: Water closed to the public.
Purple: Dangerous marine life."
The lower red flag in the "red-over-red" illustration shows a no swimming logo in white.

The flags provided by the DEP are 29.25 inches by 39 inches (about 75 x 100 cm).

Joe McMillan, 23 June 2005


Green flag

[Florida beach flag] image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005

The green flag indicates "Low hazard, calm conditions, exercise caution."
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005


Yellow flag

[Florida beach flag] image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005

The yellow flag indicates "Medium hazard, moderate surf and/or currents."
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005


Red flag

[Florida beach flag] image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005

The red flag indicates "High hazard, high surf and/or strong currents."
Red over Red [i.e., two red flags]: Water closed to the public.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005


Purple flag

[Florida beach flag] image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005

The purple flag indicates "Dangerous marine life." This color is illustrated in the mentioned pdf form as a 2×2 pattern of RGB:57-56-148 and RGB:57-60-156 in 3:1 color ratio; this is very close to BS RGB:51-51-153, which is not purple by my book, rather dark blue.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005


No swimming flag

[Florida beach flag] image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005

No swimming flag
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 June 2005