Know the cold before you get in. Water temperature, wind, official National Weather Service alerts, and the nearest free life jacket — for any US lake, reservoir, or river.
The one app we'll never charge for.
The problem it exists to interrupt
Most open-water drownings start the same way: someone judges the water by how the day feels. It's warm out, so the water must be fine. It isn't. Cold water triggers an involuntary gasp you can't control, and a strong swimmer can lose the use of their arms in minutes — long before hypothermia. Nearwater shows you the water's real temperature before you get in — not after.
A live sensor reading is labeled Measured, with its station and age. Where none exists, a modeled figure is labeled Typical — not a measurement. Never one unlabeled number.
Hour-by-hour wind and gusts, and any National Weather Service alert for your spot — rendered word-for-word, straight from the source.
The closest free loaner station, right now — borrow one for the day, return it when you leave. The single fastest thing you can do to change the outcome.
Rivers, too
Headed to a river? Nearwater reads the U.S. Geological Survey gages and shows how fast it's flowing — and whether that's more than normal for the date. A river running high and rising is a different danger than a calm one, and now you can see it before you put in.
Compared with the normal for June 7:
Running higher than normal for the date — and rising. Source: USGS.
Nearwater never tells you whether it's safe. No score, no green light, no go/no-go. We show you the official conditions and their sources — the call is yours. That honesty is the whole point.
Why it's free
Our other apps are pay-once, and proudly so. This one is different. Nearwater is a public good — free forever, no ads, no account, no revenue model. It ships with Apple's “No Data Collected” label, and your location, if you ever share it, never leaves your phone.
No ads, no subscription, no in-app purchases, no account. There's nothing to buy, ever.
“No Data Collected.” No tracking, no analytics, no cloud. Location stays on your device.
National Weather Service and USGS data, linked so you can check our work — and no AI guessing in the safety path.
Nearwater is in development. It launches free on the App Store — no catch, no cost, forever.
Notify me at launch